Broken Faith
by Marcus S. Lazarus
Summary: -AU "SoD"/"LotTL"- When the Master's plans for the Doctor and Earth take on a chillingly personal element, Martha Jones finds herself fighting not only to tell the world about the Doctor, but to restore the Doctor's faith in what he has always believed in
1. Prologue: The Master's Plan

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: Just to clarify, this begins shortly after the end of "Utopia", but looking at what the MASTER did at that point rather than what the DOCTOR is doing; chapters will initially alternate between flashbacks to the Master's actions during the eighteen months he spent preparing 'Harold Saxon' for existence and election and the Doctor's actions with Jack and Martha in the 'present' after escaping from the Futurekind, in preparation for a certain revelation on the _Valiant_...

AN 2: Can't guarantee this will be regularly updated, but the idea just came to me and I _had _to get it started

Broken Faith

In a small Cardiff side street, down the side of a club that was currently closed for the day, a simple police box- of the kind that had gone out of style several decades ago in any part of the country- stood silently, its appearance giving no impression that it was anything other than the simple box it looked like.

Inside the police box, however, it was a completely different story. While its outside appeared small, its interior consisted of a vast miniature universe, beginning with a large control room and continuing into the depths of dimensions and concepts which the human mind currently had no means of comprehending. In the middle of the control room stood a tall man with short, close-cropped brown hair and round face, dressed in clothing that seemed at least two sizes too big for him around the chest and arms and was at least a century out of date with his current time period.

This man was the Master, the second of only two known surviving Time Lords from the Time War that had annihilated their home planet and the rest of the species, and right now he was far from satisfied with his current condition.

* * *

"No no no no no _no_!" the Master cursed, slamming his hand in frustration against the console; why, of _all _the TARDISes to survive the Time War, did it have to be _this _one? "You will _not _do this to me, you _stupid_... out of date... worthless... piece of... _garbage_!"

If it wasn't for the fact that the Master _knew _TARDISes barely had enough sentience to be aware of what controls were being used- no matter what the Doctor might say, he was just being ridiculously sentimental; another foolish human habit the man had developed over his lives-, he could have sworn that the ship was laughing at him in his head.

As it was, he ignored the faint sound- it was so easily drowned out by the drumming he'd heard since childhood it barely registered anyway- and focused his energy on cursing the Doctor; it seemed that, after all those times dealing with 'insane supercomputers'- as the Doctor called them; the Master saw them as some of the few non-Time-Lord beings intelligent enough to recognise that humanity had been getting it wrong for years and it was time for someone else to do the job- he'd finally managed to improve his programming abilities to effectively lock out the TARDIS controls for setting the coordinates; not only had he locked the coordinates, but he'd programmed them so that the coordinates could only be unlocked with a code only accessible to the Doctor's unique isomorphic signature.

If the Master hadn't been so quick to get the ship working, he had little doubt that the Doctor would have rendered his transport completely inaccessible to the Master; as it was, the Master had escaped the end of the universe, only to find himself trapped on-

He paused, as the full implications of his location struck him.

_Then again_, he mused, a slight smile on his face as he studied the console before him, _it _is _still Time Lord technology... I _have _managed to bypass the coordinates already... I _am _on the Doctor's 'home-away-from-home'... and it _can _travel to _one _other location_...

The Master chuckled slightly as he looked down at the jar lying on the floor, that unidentified material holding the Doctor's other hand- what kind of _idiot _got himself into a position to get a hand cut off in the middle of a regeneration crisis like the Doctor's usual ones?- serving as his own private little 'trophy' of his latest victory over his old foe, the hand that had almost seemed to flinch away from him when he came in contact with it after his restoration...

That would be _perf_-

He stopped himself.

No... it _wasn't _perfect.

Not yet.

If he'd learned anything from his brief glimpse into his enemy's mind all those years ago- before that accursed surgeon sent the TARDIS into temporal orbit and the Doctor's regenerations were returned to him, resulting in him being trapped in the Eye until the Time Lords freed him-, it was a simple truth about the Doctor's very nature; specifically, the one thing he truly _needed _if he was going to survive his travels throughout time and space.

Some Doctors might try to do without, but in the end they always returned to this state of affairs like a comfortable suit of clothes...

Which made it the _perfect _way to truly attack the Doctor like he had never done before.

His old attempts had just been temporary, forced states; find the right candidate, and do _this _to them...

The Master allowed a broad grin to cross his face at that thought.

_Perfect_.

He would like to see the Doctor keep fighting when faced with evident like _that_...

_The first step, of course_, he mused, as he moved to stand over the telepathic circuits that would allow him to learn what his old friend had been up to since their last meeting, _is to find the one that will break the easiest and hit him the hardest, _then _work out the fine details of staying hidden long enough to do it_...

The Doctor would come for him; he had no doubt about that.

All he had to do right now was be ready for when his foe came...


	2. The Master is Prime Minister

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: Some references here to the BBC Eighth Doctor and Past Doctor novels, as well as the classic series; feel free to ask for clarification on where anything came from if you want to know and I'll include information on what novels they came from and what they meant in context in the next chapter

Broken Faith

As the Doctor walked through the streets of London, Jack and Martha close behind him, he couldn't help but allow himself a slightly pleased smile at how things had just gone there.

True, the loss of the TARDIS was a frustrating detail- even if he knew it would be around here somewhere, he always hated it when he was separated from his ship; that year or so he'd spent in London during his first meeting with Sabbath had been the longest he'd been separated from the ship and been consciously aware of it, and he remained convinced that its loss had accelerated the decay of his heart-, and the identity of the man who'd stolen it had _definitely _been a shock he wasn't expecting...

But he was here.

He'd followed his enemy- the one enemy he'd _definitely _never expected to see again; the Daleks were one thing, but he'd been so _certain _he was gone after that fatal battle in San Francisco- back to where they'd started, and he'd even managed to bring Jack and Martha along with him.

It wasn't the same as it had once been, of course- that dedication and complete acceptance was something that it wasn't easy to replace-, but they were a good group; he couldn't ask for much better, really.

As they sat around a semi-circular stone 'bench' of various seats in the middle of a small street, their location confirmed- for all that he'd appeared confident to Jack the Doctor had waited to find a newspaper before he allowed himself to get comfortable; it had been a long a time since he'd programmed something like the Vortex Manipulator for time travel, and even then he'd been using a more basic machine for only a short hop-, the Doctor had sat down to give himself a chance to focus

"...if you're gonna get stuck at the end of the universe," Jack said, his voice breaking through the Doctor's thoughts as he slipped out of his brief meditative state, "get stuck with an ex-Time Agent and his Vortex Manipulator-"

"But this Master bloke," Martha interjected, her expression clearly demonstrating her concern at the thought even without knowledge of the Master's past, "he's got the TARDIS; he could be anywhere in time and space-"

"No," the Doctor said simply, already reaching out with his mind to search for the familiar traces of another of his people; there was a faint something there, but it was vague and hard to pin down, even now he was looking for it...

But it was there.

"He's here," he said, continuing to look silently ahead of himself as he spoke, keeping his comments to the basic essentials to focus all his mental energy on the search. "Trust me."

"Who is he, anyway?" Martha asked, looking in confusion at him. "And that voice at the end; that wasn't the Professor."

"If the Master's a Time Lord," Jack said, taking up the explanation as the Doctor studied the street before him- something about those 'Saxon IS Your Man' posters struck a chord that he didn't like the feel of-, "the he must've regenerated."

"What does _that_ mean?" Martha countered.

For a moment, the Doctor wished he'd finished filling Martha in on regeneration after that thing with the living sun. He'd started it with Ben and Polly even when he _knew _he was dying after holding back DeCaster's mental pulse, and from then on he _never _seemed to bring up regeneration with those companions he was closest to; he'd mentioned it to Mel, but Sarah and Adric had only known about it because his old mentor and Romana brought it up, and Peri and Rose had been taken _completely _by surprise when he'd changed before them...

But he didn't have time to think about that right now; he _had _to find the Master. Pushing Jack's description of the regenerative process aside- he must have had access to UNIT records at some point while he'd been away; Time Agencies had _never _had access to that kind of information-, he turned his attention back to his search...

And paused.

Now that he was trying this hard, there was something throwing him off... some kind of... beat... that he couldn't quite penetrate... four rapid beats followed by a brief pause before repeating the pattern... the beat disrupting his own basic attempts to search for his old friend's presence...

As Martha questioned how they were going to find the Master in this instance, the Doctor brought his attention back to his companions; this attempt wasn't getting him anywhere, but he had to at least _look _like he was doing what he could.

"I'll know him," he said simply, as he looked over at the two of them, his mental energy returning to the here and now. "The moment I see him. Time Lords always do."

He was just grateful that such a talent was unique to Time Lords unless the other races involved had a scanner of some sort; he still recalled that close call he'd had with the Daleks during that encounter with Davros on Necros in his sixth incarnation (The affair on Vulcan was really more of a case of bad luck at a good time, really; if the Daleks he'd fought then hadn't already mind-probed some of his future selves they wouldn't have known who he was, but who knew _how _long it would have taken Ben to believe he was him without the Dalek to 'back him up'...)

"But hold on..." Martha said, her tone suggesting something had just occurred to her that she didn't like to think about. "If he could be _anyone_..."

Following the direction of Martha's gaze, the Doctor saw her eyes being directed towards the posters he himself had noticed earlier, the ones that had made him so uncomfortable when he'd seen them for the first time himself.

His blood ran cold.

_No_... he thought, his eyes widening in horror. _It can't be..._

"We missed the election," Martha said, her voice further reinforcing the Doctor's earlier thought that she'd realised what he was now thinking of. "But it can't be..."

As the sound of applause reached his ears, the Doctor heard a brief reference to Mr Saxon leaving the palace coming from a large public TV screen positioned on a post near the end of the street, and he knew that his worst fears had just come true.

"I _said _I knew that voice," Martha said, her tone clearly displaying her horror as the three of them walked down the street to get a better look at the screen. "When he spoke, inside the TARDIS, I've heard that voice hundreds of times; I've _seen_ him, we _all_ have! That was the voice of _Harold Saxon_!"

As the screen came into clear view before him, the last evidence the Doctor needed was confirmed.

He might be younger than his last incarnation- at the moment of death, anyway; from what Yana had told him about his life prior to the watch being opened the regeneration that gave the Master that incarnation could have begun by turning him into a young man and the extra years were just gained from his time as a human-, he might lack the beard that had long been his 'trademark' during most of his willing regenerations- that body he'd hijacked in San Francisco aside-, but there was no mistaking that aura of evil and resolve he could see even through the television screen.

"That's him," he said, his voice low. "He's Prime Minister. The Master is Prime Minister of Great Britain..."

A brown-haired woman stepped forward, her face partly hidden from view behind one of the Master's bodyguards, but her 'role' there clear as the Master leaned in to kiss her, her shoulder-length brown hair preventing the Doctor from catching a clear view of her face.

"The Master and his _wife_?" the Doctor said, voicing his shock at this latest turn of events without even registering that he was doing it; apart from that brief thing the Master had had with that Atlantean queen during the TOMTIT business- and he might have spent far too much with Rose if he was using the phrase 'thing' to describe the Master flirting with the queen to win support- the Master had never shown any sign of being interested in female company, and now he was _married_?

And as for the wife...

The Doctor briefly shifted his gaze back to the woman in question, but it was too late; she'd already stepped away from her husband and was once again standing behind a bodyguard, concealed from view- save for that frustratingly familiar-looking hair; why did he feel like he'd seen that somewhere before?-, the newest Master stepping forward to address the camera.

"_This country has been sick_," the Master said, his tone of voice almost teasing as he addressed the country. "_This country needs healing. This country needs... medicine. In fact_," he added, the slight smile on his face growing broader even as he spoke, "_I'd go so far as to say that what this country really needs, right now... is a Doctor_."

As applause came up from both the audience at Saxon Headquarters and those watching the screen around them, the Doctor turned back to look urgently at Martha.

"We need somewhere to hole up until we're ready," he said, his expression grim as he looked at her. "How long would it take to reach your flat from here?"

* * *

AN 2: Notice the difference? It might not seem much now, but I can assure, it will be VERY significant later on....


	3. Summoning a Secret Weapon

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: This takes place a couple of months after the Master's initial arrival on Earth in the first chapter, and will cover a few quick details such as the establishment of the Archangel network and what he's been doing with his spare time into the bargain.

Broken Faith

As he stood over the TARDIS console, a manic grin on his face as he checked over the cannibalised machinery before him for further confirmation that what he had pieced together would hold together, the Master couldn't help but grin at how easily things had come together since he'd arrived here.

Even without his original TARDIS, the various measures he'd created during his previous visits to establish 'back doors' to various government databanks relating to individual identities were easy enough to access; he'd needed a few moments to calibrate the Doctor's infernally stubborn machine to do the job, of course- it seemed to be almost as moral as its owner, really-, but once that was done, it had all been simple enough. Just as when he'd established his old identities of Professor Emil Keller or Professor Thascalos- it had really been too long since he'd tried something like this on a long-term basis; there was really something inherently satisfying about seeing these humans work so hard to destroy _themselves_, when all you had to do in the end was pick up the end product and use it against them-, he'd swiftly managed to establish fully laid-out background, including doctored photographs and false biographical information.

It wouldn't stand up to close scrutiny, of course- putting aside how much more difficult it was to keep this kind of thing secret in this time frame, he'd never attempted this kind of thing on a large scale before for good reason; the more public you were the more people wanted to find some juicy scandal or another in your past to hold over you-, but that was the real beauty of it; it didn't need to hold up against that. After setting up the necessary paperwork, he'd slipped into Parliament- the place was in such chaos after that mess with the Sycorax and Harriet Jones's collapse; he wondered if the Doctor even knew how much damage his simple action had caused- and arranged for the construction and launch of the new Archangel satellites. Thanks to the low-level telepathic field that the satellites had been broadcasting from construction- thus preventing anyone working on them from even _thinking _about questioning the pact of his actions-, all fifteen satellites had been launched in a matter of days, leaving the Master free to work on the next stage of his plan without fear of discovery.

He'd already established contact with the people his human alter-ego had sent off on their journey, of course- it was actually a lot easier to bypass the Doctor's restrictions that far into the future; it wasn't like there were really many other places for him _to _go at that point in time-; once he'd gone there, it had been simply enough to make a few minor tweaks to the machinery before they arrived that would leave everything seemingly working fine for the first few weeks only to fall apart afterwards. They were still holding on, of course, but it wasn't like he was operating on a time limit here; their precious 'Utopia' would fall apart in the time frame he required, and that was all he needed.

Besides, right now he had more important issues to worry about than _when _the Doctor's precious humans would use his 'incentives' to fall apart; after all, even without his 'assistance' they'd have gotten there eventually, and all he'd done ws ensure it happened in his time frame.

Right now, he had more important matters to attend to; if he was truly to destroy the Doctor, he had to acquire his 'bargaining chip'.

It was one of many things the Doctor had overlooked, really; the TARDIS itself might currently be incapable of going anywhere, but that didn't mean he couldn't use to _draw _people here.

It was rather like that incident with the Racnoss and that idiotic 'Donna' woman recorded in the databanks- the only thing missing from them seemed to be the final result of the Time War; the Master's best guess was that something had happened recently that had practically incinerated the TARDIS memory banks and forced the Doctor to reconstruct them with certain key information missing-; just as she had been drawn to the TARDIS by the Huon particles, the Master could use the TARDIS's power source- having cannibalised it to create a short-term small-scale vortex portal, of course- to draw someone to _him_ from another location.

It would essentially burn out the zyton crystals until they could regenerate, of course; TARDISes had never been designed to do this kind of thing, it would be dangerous even with the modifications he'd made in the intervening time, and the machine would probably burn out as soon as he'd acquired what he was after…

But, in the end, none of that really mattered; he was prepared to wait for a few months to put his entire plan into action.

After all, even with that little… handicap, by the time the Doctor managed to get away from Malcassairo- and he would escape; for all of the Master's comments at the end, he had learned the hard way never to underestimate the Doctor's ability to have a plan to get out of any situation-, the full-scale Paradox Machine would be ready and able- if not exactly 'willing'- to do what he wanted by the time the Doctor arrived to when he _thought _the Master would have just arrived himself…

_Enough dilly-dallying_, the Master reflected- he was really starting to worry about this incarnation's moods; his time as the Professor and in the body of that 'Bruce' person before he fell into the Eye seemed to have left him with more than a few human habits and quirks that he never would have possessed in his previous lives-, as he reached over and activated the controls that would set the next stage of his plan into motion.

For a moment, the TARDIS console shuddered, sparks flying from the console as a low scream sounded from the telepathic circuits, as though the ship itself was objecting to its new master's actions as it tore a hole in reality itself, seeking its intended subject from another distant location in time and space…

Then, just as the Master was starting to wonder if the Doctor's old relic could cope with the task he had given it, the 'scream' stopped, accompanied by a brief glow off to one side of the console that terminated when a young woman fell to the floor.

_Victory_! the Master thought, clenching a fist in triumph as he grinned at the TARDIS's newest occupant; just as he'd planned, even when unable to travel there itself, the TARDIS _had _possessed enough power to create a minute fracture in reality large enough to draw the woman before him into the ship.

As his new guest stood shakily on her feet, staring around herself in shock and awe, the Master couldn't help but grin.

She was almost better than he'd imagined, really; even dear Miss Grant had never looked so vulnerable and shaken during their first encounter, and she'd only just been hired by UNIT and hadn't even encountered any aliens yet!

"Oh my…" the new arrival whispered, taking in the TARDIS one last time before her eyes focused on the Master, an uncertain expression crossing her face. "Doctor…?"

The Master smiled.

"Not quite, my dear girl," he said, looking at her with the casual ease that he'd perfected so long ago in his twelfth incarnation (For all his later incarnations' skills, that one _had _been the best at blending in long-term without elaborate disguises; the memory of some of the theatrics he'd resorted to in that abducted Trakenite body made him shudder now). "I'm not the Doctor, but I _do _know him…"

* * *

AN 2: Just to clarify, the Master's twelfth incarnation- for the purposes of this story- is the one portrayed by Roger Delgado; the Peter Pratt/Geoffrey Beevers incarnation being the Master's last self, and with the events of the novel "The Dark Path"- where the Second Doctor traps Koschei (The Master before he assumed his name) in orbit around a black hole, leaving him to waste most of his lives trying to escape- taken into account, it only made sense. By the way, the woman who appeared here IS the Master's wife, but that's all you're getting about her identity at the moment…


	4. Tracing the Master's Steps

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: As this chapter returns to the present, I should just clarify that the Master's 'execution'- it was too impersonal to be called murder and too clean to be a slaughter- of the cabinet and Viven Rook's meeting with 'Mrs Saxon' will be taking place around this time, but I didn't write them because the cabinet execution added nothing to the storyline and the meeting with Mrs Saxon couldn't be written without giving her identity away before the crucial moment.

Trust me, when you see her for the first time you'll know _precisely _why I couldn't give her identity away earlier…

AN 2: I acknowledge that the dialogue here is essentially the same as in the original episode, but I assure you that things start to change in the next few chapters; the scenes here were just so relevant to the plot that I couldn't _not _write them

Broken Faith

Even as the Doctor hurried up the stairs towards Martha's flat- he hadn't been here since that whole mess with Richard Lazarus; it was amazing how much had happened since then-, he was already racing to figure out his next move. Until he knew how the Master had managed to establish his identity of Harold Saxon, his old UNIT contacts wouldn't do much good- there was no way of knowing if they'd been 'compromised' by whatever the Master had set up; Koschei had never had sufficient interest in politics back at the Academy to achieve this kind of authority on his own merit, which meant he must have used outside influences-, which meant that his only chance right now was to work out what the Master had done to reach this point and work his way along from there…

"Home!" Martha said as they finally reached her flat door, unlocking and opening the door at a rapid pace, walking in just ahead of him.

"What have you got?" the Doctor asked, looking urgently around the flat as he shrugged off his coat. "Computer, laptop, anything…?"

His voice trailed off as he glanced back at Jack, who had just started dialling a number into a mobile phone. "Jack, who are you phoning; you can't tell anyone we're _here_!"

"Just some friends of mine, but there's no reply-" Jack began, uncertainly indicating his apparently unresponsive phone, only for Martha to cut him off as she turned around, a conventional black-and-silver-coloured laptop in her arms, cutting off any attempt the Doctor might make to criticise Jack's actions.

"Here you go," she said, looking anxiously at the Doctor as she passed it to him. "Any good?"

The Doctor barely even allowed himself time to nod in response before he grabbed the laptop from her hands, barely having time to study the computer before Jack stepped forward and grabbed it from him.

"Look," the ex-Time Agent said, walking over to a nearby seat as he spoke, "I can show you the Saxon websites, he's been around for ages…"

"That's so weird, though…" Martha mused, prompting the Doctor to glance back at her as Jack began to rapidly type at the keyboard. "It's the day after the election; that's only four days after I met you."

The Doctor had to admit, when it was phrased like that- particularly in light of the current turn of events- he couldn't believe it either.

"We went flying all round the universe," he muttered, half to himself and half to his friends as he turned back to look at the laptop, "while he was here the whole time…"

"You gonna tell us who he is?" Martha asked, her tone suggesting that she didn't entirely expect an answer but wanted to try and get one anyway (That was one thing he liked about her, really; she never gave up _trying_, no matter what, not like- he stopped that thought right there; it went to territory he was _not _ready to look at right now).

"He's a Time Lord," the Doctor replied simply; right now, with his available information and resources at minimum while the Master's abilities were almost greater than they'd ever been, he didn't have time to go into more detail about his old enemy until he knew more about what he was dealing with.

"What about the rest of it?" Martha asked, clearly not satisfied with that explanation. "I mean, who'd call himself 'the Master'?"

"That's all you need to know…" the Doctor replied, leaning forward to bend over Jack's shoulder- he knew it was an abrupt means of cutting the conversation off, but he wasn't ready to talk about the steps that had led to the Master taking his current path right now- as he glared at the screen. "Come on, show me Harold Saxon."

As the Doctor focused his attention on the screen before him, he vaguely heard an answering machine behind him beep and a voice- it sounded vaguely like Martha's sister but he wouldn't like to swear to it; he _had _only met the woman once, after all- start to speak, only for Martha to delete the message before it could finish. The Doctor briefly heard Martha say something in a frustrated tone of voice- whether referring to him or her sister, he didn't know-, but before he could find out his attention was drawn back to the computer as Jack began to read from the screen, the Doctor moving to sit on the arm of Martha's sofa as his old friend spoke.

"Well, here's his biography," Jack explained, glancing briefly back at the Doctor as he spoke. "Harold Saxon; former Minister of Defence, first came to prominence when he shot down the Racnoss on Christmas Eve- nice work, by the way."

"Oh, thanks," the Doctor said, nodding slightly in a dismissive manner, hoping Martha wouldn't ask for further information about that. He preferred not to dwell too much on the mood he'd been in at that particular point in his life, quite frankly; he might not have been able to see any other way to stop the Racnoss at that point, but that didn't stop him regretting the methods he'd had to resort to after he'd had time for… reflection…

"But he goes back _years_," Martha interjected, breaking off the Doctor's train of thought (She'd been good for that at times, really; having her there had helped him get back his old interest in straightforward exploration and travel rather than just dropping in now and again to investigate stuff, even if things still sometimes didn't turn out _quite _the way he'd wanted them to).

"He's _famous_," Martha continued, walking over to the laptop, pushing Jack slightly to the side as she placed her finger on the mousepad. "Everyone knows the story, look-"

She paused for a moment as she clicked on the biography page, giving the Doctor a chance to glimpse a couple of pictures of the Master's latest face- one showing what looked like the Master at a university graduation ceremony wearing one of those wide-brimmed flat-topped hats the Doctor could never remember the name of while holding a diploma, another showing him in blue-and-white-striped rugby gear holding a ball and a third featuring him holding a hardback novel with the worrying title of "Kiss Me, Kill Me"- before Martha's voice drew his attention back.

"Cambridge University, rugby blue, won the athletics thing, wrote a novel, went into business, marriage, _everything_," she said, turning to look at the Doctor in confusion. "He's got a whole life set up here; how could he have only _just _got to Earth?"

"He was always skilled at setting up fake identities for himself; did it on a fairly regular basis back when I was stuck on Earth in the seventies a few lifetimes back," the Doctor said, shrugging slightly as he looked around at the other two people in the room, once again taking care to avoid specifics; with the situation this dire the last thing he wanted to do was give the impression that he didn't know what to do. "Even without his TARDIS, it wouldn't be too difficult for him to use mine to access his old back doors and set up the necessary paperwork."

Staring at the screen for a moment, he shook his head in frustration. "The only problem is that this kind of thing would _never _stand up to large-scale public scrutiny on its own; how could he have set up a fake life in this kind of _depth_…?"

"If he did this _before_-" Martha pointed out.

"People pay more attention to British politicians than they do to a Serbian businessman or a Greek professor; this kind of identity's too large-scale for him to be sure of creating something convincing enough to stop _all _inquiry," the Doctor said, sighing slightly in frustration as Jack got up and headed for the kitchen, the sound of his old companion making tea quickly reaching his ears; evidently he'd concluded that a quick drink would be the best thing for them right now.

"Look," Jack said, his voice coming through the door as he poured the cups, the Doctor walking over to examine the laptop himself as Martha, following a brief glance down at herself, walked off to another part of the flat, "you might be right about the scale of this being beyond his usual methods, but he's got the TARDIS; maybe the Master went back in time and has been living here for _decades_."

"Nope," the Doctor said, shaking his head briefly as he stared at the screen before him; he had to admit, if it weren't for the voice he'd heard earlier he _never _would have guessed this man to be the latest Master.

"Why not?" Jack asked as he walked back into the lounge, followed by Martha coming in via another door wearing her red leather jacket; evidently she'd decided it was time to change her original top (After the stress of the Futurekind escape the Doctor couldn't blame her; one advantage of being a Time Lord at least meant you perspired a lot less than humans, which made it easier to maintain his usual default-costume-per-incarnation approach). "Worked for me."

"When he was stealing the TARDIS," the Doctor replied, turning around in the chair to take one of the cups from Jack as Martha moved in to take another, "the only thing I could do was fuse the coordinates. I locked them, _permanently_. He can only travel between the year one hundred trillion, and the last place the TARDIS landed, _which _is right here, right now."

"Yeah, but… a little leeway?" Jack suggested, looking probingly at the Doctor.

"Well…" the Doctor mused- he had to admit, the Master _had _always been rather good at the technical details, but this kind of near-permanent isomorphic lock was virtually impossible to crack unless you were the one who'd activated it-, going over the possibilities for a moment before he was forced to nod in confirmation. "Eighteen months?"

Noting Jack and Martha's scepticism, he was compelled to continue. "_Tops_; the _most _he could have been here is eighteen months, so how's he managed all this? The Master was always sort of… hypnotic, but this is on a _massive _scale…"

"I was gonna vote for him," Martha said, nodding briefly at the computer as she sat on the arm of the couch.

"Really?" the Doctor said, his head automatically turning to look at her, unable to stop a slightly stunned expression from crossing his face; what could the Master have done during his political career to make _Martha_ want tovote for him?

"Well, it was before I even met you," Martha clarified, looking back at him with a slightly uncomfortable smile at the thought. "And I liked him."

"Me too," Jack added, his expression reflecting his own scepticism at that fact in light of their recent discoveries.

"Why d'you say that?" the Doctor asked, looking probingly at his companions; if he could determine what had prompted them to want to vote for the Master, he'd have a better idea what he was dealing with. "What was his policy? What did he _stand_ for?"

"I dunno…" Martha said, gazing thoughtfully into the distance, apparently unconsciously beginning to tap the fingers of her right hand against the fingers of her left. "He always sounded… good. Like you could trust him. Just… nice."

That alone told the Doctor that the Master hadn't won the election based on policies alone; Martha Jones, who'd told him during their first meeting that he'd have to _earn _his title before she'd call him 'Doctor', would _never _have voted for someone when she couldn't even remember what he did.

"He spoke about…" Martha continued, pausing for a moment in reflection before she continued to speak, her expression becoming slightly vacant as she stared out at nothing in particular. "I can't really remember, but it was good. Just the sound of his voice…"

"What's that?" the Doctor interjected, indicating Martha's hands.

"What?" Martha asked, her body jerking slightly in surprise as she glanced back in his direction.

"_That_!" the Doctor repeated, pointing insistently at her hand. "That tapping, that rhythm, what are you doing?"

"I don't know!" Martha retorted, her voice suddenly sharp as she glared back at him. "It's nothing, it's just- just-… I don't know!"

Before the Doctor could ask any further questions- although Martha's response confirmed for him that he was dealing with hypnosis; her response was a clear reaction to someone questioning subconsciously-conditioned behaviour-, the laptop suddenly began to emit a loud, deep beeping sound, accompanied after a second by a window appearing on the screen saying 'SAXON BROADCAST ALL CHANNELS'.

Forcing the issue of the tapping to the side for the moment- he could tackle it later; if the Master had an announcement to make he wanted to hear it-, the Doctor hurried over to Martha's television and turned it on.

"Our lord and Master is speaking to his kingdom…" he muttered, only just registering Jack and Martha taking up position behind him as the Master's new face appeared on the screen before him, still dressed in the black suit he'd been wearing earlier as he smiled out at the people watching.

"_Britain, Britain, Britain_," he said, his tone solemn as he spoke. "_What _extraordinary_ times we've had. Just a few years ago, this world was so small… and then they came. Out of the unknown, falling from the skies_…"

As the Doctor watched, the screen cut to a camera view of the Slitheen ship crashing into Big Ben- the ship that he and Rose had witnessed strike the great clock so long ago in his previous incarnation-, the Master continuing to speak even as the images played on the screen.

"_You've seen it happen_," his former friend's voice said nonchalantly as the images continued. "_Big Ben destroyed! A spaceship over London_-" the screen flicked to show the Sycorax ship hovering above the city, "-_all those ghosts_-" Westminster bridge was suddenly filled with the ghost-like forms that had been the Cybermens' initial forms in this reality, "_and metal men,_-" Cybermen marching into combat (The Doctor briefly wondered where this footage had come from; the gunfire suggested the Cybermen were in a fight), "_the Christmas Star, that came to kill._" This last statement was followed by images of the Racnoss ship striking out at London, both from a distance and from what appeared to be a street,before the screen shifted back to show the Master.

"_Time and time again,_" he stated, looking out at the camera, an expression of what could almost have been slight contempt in his eyes as he continued, "_and the government told you nothing. Well not me! Not Harold Saxon! Because my purpose here today is to tell you this. Citizens of Great Britain…_

He paused for a moment, clearly wanting the statement he was about to make to sink in, before he continued. "_I have been contacted_."

The Doctor almost couldn't believe it.

_This _was the Master's plan? Bring in another alien race to do his dirty work? Hadn't he learned _anything _from his previous attempts with everything from Axos to the Tzun; that kind of trick had _never _worked before, and this time he didn't even have a fully-operational TARDIS to use to get away!

"_A message_," the Master continued to say, "_for humanity, from the stars_."

As the three people in the room continued to stare intently at the screen, a poor-quality image, flickering even as they watched, appeared on the screen before them, displaying what seemed to be a hovering golden sphere- although the lights that seemed to be shining on it made it hard to be certain of the colour- with bright blue lights running across a line that seemed to bisect its form.

"_People of the Earth_!" the sphere said in a clear, slightly musical voice; it sounded somewhat like a child, actually. "_We come in peace. We bring you great gifts! We bring technology and wisdom and protection. And all we ask in return... is your friendship_."

"_Sweet_," the Master said as the screen flicked back to show him, an almost affectionate look on his face that was only partly ruined by the slight sarcasm behind it; the Doctor's knowledge of the history of the man before him only made it more insincere…

"_And this species has identified itself_," the Master continued, drawing the Doctor's attention back. "_They're called the Toclafane_-"

"_What_?" the Doctor said, staring at the screen in shock and confusion, barely registering the Master's continued speech as a part of his mind flashed back to the old childhood tales of the Toclafane told to him by Quences and Innocet all those long years ago in Lungbarrow, tales of how the personifications of pasts and futures erased by careless Time Lords would come and hunt them for revenge at denying them their existence; it was one of the earliest tales told to discourage young Gallifreyians from attempting to change history…

_But they _aren't _real_! the Doctor reminded himself, still reeling from the memories roused by that name. _This isn't like Valdemar or the Doomsday weapon; the Toclafane _can't _exist, I'd have encountered them… so many times before now I can't even _think _how often it's been if they were_!

"…_we take our place in the universe_!" the Master's voice said, forcing the Doctor's attention back to the matter at hand; he could figure out the mysteries of these 'Toclafane' _after _he'd stopped whatever the Master was trying to accomplish now. "_Every man, woman and child, every teacher and chemist and lorry driver and farmer and… oh, I don't know, every_…"

He paused for a moment, smiling out at the camera as he spoke the last words. "…_medical student_?"

It only took a simultaneous glance at Martha from both him and Jack for the Doctor to realise the horrible truth; the Master knew about Martha, which meant…

Leaping for the only obvious location for a bomb to have been planted without any major work being done, the Doctor spun Martha's television around, and was instantly greeted by the sight of seven sticks of dynamite, attached to the back by red tape and connected to a timer that was already counting down even as they watched it.

"_Out_!" the Doctor yelled, grabbing the laptop from the desk and his coat from the sofa before he hurtled out of the door after Martha and Jack, the small group only just reaching the street before her flat window exploded in a blaze of fire, glass and wood showering down around the front of the house; the explosion itself seemed to be contained in the room, but he was _definitely _going to need to call in some favours from UNIT to get that fixed without costing Martha a significant amount in student loans…

"You all right?" the Doctor called back as he stared at the window before him, his resolve hardening once again; would the Master _never _learn that going after his companions was _not _a good way to earn his mercy?

"Fine, yeah, I'm fine," Jack said briefly.

"Martha?" the Doctor asked, not even bothering to respond to Jack's comment; of course _Jack _would be fine, it was _Martha _he was worried about right now…

When he didn't receive an immediate response, he turned around to look at his companion, only to be left surprised at the sight of her dialling her mobile phone.

"What are you _doing_?" he yelled; didn't she _realise _this wasn't the time to be making phone calls right now?

"He knows about _me_," Martha replied briefly. "What about my family?"

"Don't tell them _anything_-" the Doctor began.

"I'll dowhat I like!" Martha retorted through gritted teeth, glaring briefly at him with one hand raised before turning her attention back to the phone, walking off to a corner of the street with her back to him.

A swift glance with Jack was all the Doctor needed to confirm that now wasn't a good time to try and talk to her- particularly not when talking to her mother; why was it he could _never _get on with his companions' parents whenever he met them?-; passing the laptop to Jack, he shrugged his coat back on, pausing briefly to confirm that the sonic screwdriver was still in his inner pocket before he turned his mind back to what they'd just discovered.

The Master was planning to initiate _first contact_? Putting aside the fact that he had set it up with a race that didn't even exist, how the _hell _could he have made contact with _any _kind of aliens without someone knowing about it? The TARDIS's long-range communication system was one of the features he'd disabled when he'd locked the coordinates, so the Master couldn't have broadcast a message seeking aid without someone else helping him, and the Master would _never _request outside help for something _this _significant…

_I _know _I'm missing something here; the question is _what… the Doctor reflected, clenching a fist briefly in frustration before he relaxed it again. _Does the name mean anything… maybe he managed to contact something _in _the vortex itself…_

"Dad?" Martha's voice said, breaking into his train of thought as she turned back to look at him, confusion clear in her voice at what she'd just heard on the other end of her phone. "What are you doing there?"

It only took a moment for the Doctor to realise what Martha was talking about; she'd been calling her mother, but from what she'd mentioned of her family life her parents were divorced and on rather bad terms with each other, so what was her _father _doing with her _mother_…?

"Dad," Martha continued to say after a brief pause, her voice low as she looked anxiously up at him, "just say yes or no; is there someone else there?"

After a moment's silence, the Doctor heard the faint sounds of yelling and some kind of physical activity on the other end of the phone.

"Dad?" Martha yelled, her voice now louder than it had been. "What's going on? _Dad_?"

After listening to her phone for another second or two, Martha terminated the call, fear evident on her face.

"I've gotta help them!" she said, running over to a nearby car.

"That's _exactly _what they want!" the Doctor yelled as Martha hurried over to the driver's seat. "It's a _trap_-!"

"I _don't CARE_!" Martha yelled back at him, her teeth clenched once again as she got into the car.

Exchanging another brief glance with Jack, the Doctor and the ex-Time Agent hurried into the car- he hated the lack of personality these new models possessed; maybe it was the TARDIS rubbing off on him, but he'd always felt more comfortable with older cars ever since he'd first acquired Bessie back in his third incarnation-, Jack diving into the back seat as he sat down in the passenger seat.

If the Master had done anything to Martha's _family_… people he'd barely spoken to… solely to get to him…

The Doctor shuddered.

The Master was operating on a scale he hadn't resorted to since he'd used Kamelion against him all those years and lifetimes ago; trapping innocents directly in the middle of their feud simply because he _could_…

The Doctor clenched his fists.

This _had _to end.

The question was, how would he end it…?

He didn't know.


	5. Witnessing Utopia

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: This chapter is partly inspired by Lucy Saxon's comment in "Last of the Time Lords" that the Master showed her the end of the universe; I figured that such a moment _perfectly _reflected what the Master's trying to accomplish with this latest scheme of his, so I decided to include it while again never expressly identifying the other person involved

Broken Faith

As he stood on the door of the TARDIS, the ship currently hovering silently above the planet that the humans had foolishly named 'Utopia'- even _before _he got involved in its affairs this place hadn't been much to write home about, as the humans said-, the Master grinned as he took in the sight of his latest 'companion' watching the world that was all humanity had left at the end of the universe.

He might prefer operating on the large scale, but there was something very… satisfying… about seeing someone's personal, individual beliefs being taken down as he watched them.

"It's all… dying," she whispered, staring out at the sight of the humans' self-proclaimed 'Utopia', falling apart even as they watched it, another building collapsing into flames as the people running around below fought to keep it stable, further people falling apart and lying down on the ground to cry as their actions continued to fail to make any impact. "They came so far…"

"And in the end, it doesn't matter," the Master commented, making sure one last time that the TARDIS was set to hover before he moved over to join her. "It makes you wonder who the real 'monster' is, really; the ones who try to change things to give people a chance to try something new… or the ones who fight to maintain a status quo that will only result in _this_."

After a moment's silence as the young woman stared at the sight of the damaged planet before her, the sound of screams reaching her ears as artificial organs and limbs were added to those who couldn't even provide services for the most basic kind of anaesthetics, she stepped back from the door, shaking her head as she looked tearfully back at the Master.

"You're _wrong_!" she yelled, glaring back at him with pain clear on her face; if the Master hadn't been trying to break her devotion to the Doctor he could have almost admired it. "The Doctor _saves _people, he _helps _them-

"He keeps them alive so that they may come to _this_?" the Master asked, walking over to stand in front of the young woman, waiting a moment before leaning over to whisper in her ear with a slight smile. "All those times he's fought against 'evil'… all those pleas that life is 'precious'… saying that he never kills unless he 'has to'… trying to get the big bad universe to leave his precious humans alone… all to bring humanity to _this _point?"

"He isn't a monster; he's a _good_-" the woman began.

"Allowing humanity- his 'favourite race' to reach _this _point is something a _good _man would do?" the Master countered, taking care to look like he actually cared one way or the other about what he was saying as he stepped back slightly to better look at her. "The Doctor is not a hero; in the end, what have his actions _done _but cause chaos? Wherever he goes, he leaves death and destruction in the aftermath; can you honestly say that there has _never _been a time where, if he was not present, things would have worked out _without _such a loss of life, or might have even worked out the same way they did without him even being there in the first place?"

Once again, the woman stood in silence, clearly trying to come up with some kind of protest to that last statement, before she spoke again.

"He… he only wants people to be _free_…" she said, her voice weak as she looked out at the city before the TARDIS's open doors once again.

"And look at what they did with that 'freedom' the Doctor was so keen to give them; at the end of the universe itself, the best they can do to survive is to mutilate themselves as everything falls apart around them," the Master said, shaking his head as he looked mockingly at the scene outside the TARDIS's doors before he turned back to look at his young 'companion'. "The universe doesn't respond to peace and _faith_, my dear girl; force is the only language you can use if you wish to prevail in making any kind of change for the better. The Doctor might set out to set an example, but in the end, not only does he never actually manage to save anyone in the _long _run- Earth alone just keeps getting into danger no matter how often he saves it; if he just stepped back and let things happen who's to say that some of those aliens wouldn't make things _better _if he left them alone to run Earth their way?-, but for all his attempts to set an 'example', can you name _anyone _who has _truly _changed for the _better_ from their time with _him_?"

After the woman had spent a few moments standing silently in the centre of the TARDIS console, lost in thought as the Master watched her, she finally shook her head.

"No…" she said softly, the faintest trace of tears in her eyes as she said the word. No… I can't."

"Precisely," the Master said, his grin widening as he nodded in approval at the woman. "The Doctor might make fine speeches about human endurance and talk about people 'getting along' when left alone, but in the end, _this _is all that the universe always comes down to; violence, pain, and despair. The only way this is _ever _going to change is if someone takes a more _active _role to change it, and the Doctor's old methods are _not _going to make _that _happen."

The woman blinked.

"'_Old _methods'?" she repeated, looking uncertainly at him. "What… what do you mean?"

The Master smiled.

Now _that _was the cue he'd been waiting for…

Time to see if she retained her faith in the Doctor when she saw how far he would go…


	6. Last of the Time Lords

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: Slight reference here to my story "Filling in the Blanks", which features my version of the circumstances that caused the Eighth Doctor to regenerate while answering the question of how the Time War in the TV series ties in to the destruction of Gallifrey in "The Ancestor Cell"; reading it is not essential for understanding the overall plot, but it _will _answer some crucial questions that might come up

Broken Faith

As Martha tore through the streets in her car, weaving around other cars with no real regard for the rules of the road- not that the Doctor could blame her; after his 'trip' down the motorway with the TARDIS last Christmas to recover Donna he'd be the worst kind of hypocrite-, the Doctor once again had one of those moments that had become far too common over the course of his lives when he wondered if his companions' lives would have been better if he'd never become involved in them. Dodo's death alone continued to haunt him- by the time he'd read about her death in his third incarnation it had been too late to do anything to help her, and it had taken until his seventh life for him to finally feel capable of attending the funeral-; here Martha was, having done nothing wrong save for travelling with him, with her family in danger from a man who'd tried to destroy entire planets on _three_ separate occasions just to give himself more life…

He barely even registered Martha berating him as she ended her attempt to call her sister; there was nothing she could do or say right now that wouldn't leave him feeling worse than he already did…

Then they spun around a corner to find themselves facing a group of men dressed in black suits forcing a woman the Doctor instantly recognised as Martha's mother into a van, surround by police cars and men dressed in full-boy black costumes and helmets carrying large weapons.

"_Martha_!" Mrs Jones screamed, looking at the car in horror. "Get out of here, _get out_!"

"Target identified!" a young blonde woman- dressed in black like the others, despite being seeming the only person in the group unarmed- called out, prompting the men around her to aim at the car.

"Martha, _reverse_!" the Doctor said, looking urgently at his companion as she stared at the sight before her, momentarily paralysed in shock.

"Take aim!" the woman added, the men around her cocking their weapons even as she spoke.

"_Get out, NOW_!" the Doctor yelled, Martha breaking out of her temporary 'trance' and setting the car into reverse even as the woman gave the order to fire, bullets seeming just grazing the metal of the car as the rear window shattered while Martha tore off down the nearest road at top speed.

"The only place he can go is the planet Earth!" Martha yelled, her frustration evident as she sharply turned around another corner.

"Mind out…" the Doctor said (He was aware that Liz, Jo and Sarah would have called him a hypocrite if they'd been present- he'd driven far faster than this in Bessie back during his exile-, but this car didn't have any of Bessie's extras; if they crashed, it would all be over), his eyes rapidly scanning the street as he yelled out another warning.

"Martha," Jack suddenly put in, leaning forward to speak more directly at Martha, his voice possessing a commanding tone that the Doctor recalled all too well from their hunt for Margaret back in Cardiff all those years ago, "Listen to me, do as I say. We've gotta ditch this car. Pull over… Right _now_!"

Even as Martha continued to stare silently ahead of herself, she was already moving to obey Jack's 'order' (The Doctor tried not to think about the slight twinge in his chest at the thought of Martha listening to Jack over him; this was _not _the time for a power struggle!), turning down a side road to park the car at one end of a tunnel underneath a small stone bridge. Grabbing the laptop once again as he climbed out of the car- right now was _far _from the best time to start trying to apologise to Martha about what had happened to her family-, the Doctor set off for the other end of the tunnel, Jack close behind him as Martha pulled out her mobile.

"Martha, come _on_!" the Doctor called back to her, barely registering her voice as she began to speak into her phone- most likely talking to her brother, the only member of her family currently unaccounted for-, apparently encouraging him to hide somewhere, only to pause mid-sentence and slow to a stop before she started speaking again.

"Let them go, Saxon!" she yelled, her voice making it clear that she was barely holding herself together, the expression on her face as she spoke only reinforcing that fact. "D'you hear me? _Let them go_!"

The Doctor didn't even bother to ask; as soon as he had heard her say 'Saxon' he had passed the laptop over to Jack, run back towards Martha, grabbed the phone from her hand and then brought it to his ear, walking off to give Martha time to regain her composure.

"I'm here," he said simply.

After a moment's silence, the man on the other end of the line spoke at last.

"_Doctor_…" the voice said, in a tone that could have almost been reverential if it came from anyone other than the Master.

"Master," the Doctor replied, his own voice as neutral as he could make it.

"_I like it when you use my name_," the Master replied, his tone still low, giving the impression that he was almost moved by the Doctor's words.

"You chose it," the Doctor replied, shrugging it off; he'd never felt comfortable using that name, but ever since the incident with the Darkheart it had become increasingly clear that the Master would never be Koschei again. "Psychiatrist's field day."

"_As you chose yours_," the Master replied casually. "_The man who makes people _better_; how sanctimonious is that? Particularly when you _don't…"

"You've done well for yourself, though," the Doctor said, deciding not to ponder the implications of the Master's last statement; he didn't have time to play his old friend's games. "Prime Minister, then."

"_I know_," the Master replied, the smile evident in his voice. "_It's good, isn't it_?"

"Who are those creatures?" the Doctor asked, bringing the conversation back to the point, unable to stop himself from pacing as he spoke. "'Cause here's no such thing as the Toclafane; that's just a made-up-name, like the bogeyman-"

"_D'you remember all those… fairy tales about the Toclafane when we were kids_?" the Master asked, cutting the Doctor off before he could finish. "_Back home_?"

_Fairy tale_…

The Toclafane were a fairy tale like Zagreus had been a nursery rhyme; the Doctor certainly hadn't told Susan anything like _that _back when they'd travelled together…

"_Where is it, Doctor_?" the Master asked, bringing his attention back to the conversation (He really was _remarkably _nostalgic in this incarnation; naming that dodo Dorothea was barely the tip of the iceberg, really)…

"Gone," he said at last, his voice so low he wondered if he didn't want the Master to hear it.

"_How can Gallifrey be_ gone?" the Master asked, his tone now shifted to contain a slight trace of malice at the implication; the Doctor couldn't help but wonder if the Master recalled the time _he'd _tried to destroy Gallifrey, during his brief 'alliance' with Goth, but this wasn't the time to get lost in recollection right now…

"It burnt," he said, after a brief pause, the images of that last moment before he fired the weapons systems still burned into his mind.

"_And the Time Lords_?"

"Dead," the Doctor replied, as he moved to sit down on a small wall nearby. "And the Daleks… more or less. What happened to you?"

"_The Time Lords only resurrected me because they knew I'd be the perfect warrior for a Time War_," the Master replied (Which at least answered the _how _of it; with the Master's biodata available after the last time the Time Lords had captured him during the Game of Rassilon it wouldn't be impossible to clone a fresh body for him and extract his mind from the Eye of Harmony once they learned what had happened during that affair in San Francisco, and that... _thing_... he'd spoken to in the Eye during that mess with the Vore before he regenerated could have just as easily been Omega trying to psyche him out by acting like someone else). "_I was there when the Dalek Emperor took control of the Cruciform_."

He paused once again, and then continued. "_I saw it… and I knew. I ran. I ran so far. Made myself human so they would never find me, because…_"

For a moment there was silence once again, and then the Master spoke once more. "_I was so scared_."

"I know," the Doctor replied.

And he _did _know; for all that the Master had killed so many, for all that he'd come up with plans to control Daemons and Chronovores…

In the end, he was always ruled by fear of the day when he would lose so decisively that _nothing _could save him.

"All _of them_?" the Master said, a slightly sceptical tone in his voice before he continued in a more confident manner. "_But not you. Which must mean…_"

"I was the only one who could end it," the Doctor confirmed, avoiding going into details; even now, that last terrible confrontation with the Grandfather or Davros- time may have 'reset' itself so that the Dalek timeline was the true one, but he (And most likely Fitz and Compassion, now that he thought about it; he'd have to check up on Fitz and see what he remembered about that time once this was over) still recalled the nightmarish sight of his own face staring back at him, madness in his eyes and an arm half-gone- remained burned in his memory so vividly he couldn't bring himself to share that nightmare with even the Master. "And I tried, I did, I tried everything-"

"_What did it _feel _like, though_?" the Master interjected, his tone the same eager expression he'd used whenever some means of gaining power was in his grasp. "_Two almighty civilisations burning… ohh, tell me, how did that feel, to know that _death_ was the only way to save everything…_?"

"Stop it-" the Doctor began coldly.

"_You must have been like_ God…" the Master whispered, the near-reverence in his tone making the Doctor shudder in his skin.

"I've been alone ever since," he said instead, trying to bring the conversation back to the central matter, his voice becoming more earnest as he expressed the hope that he'd been unable to share with Jack and Martha. "But not any more… Don't you see; all we've _got_ is each other."

"_Are you asking me out on a _date?" the Master replied, a teasing element to his voice that he'd definitely taken from his 'Tremas' incarnation (The Doctor still wished he could have found some way to save Nyssa's father; Tremas had deserved better than that after the help he'd given the Doctor).

"You could stop this," the Doctor said, desperation seeping into his voice as the pace of his voice accelerated. "Right now, we could leave this planet, we can fight across the _constellations_ if that's what you want, but _not on Earth_."

For a moment there was nothing but silence, and then the Master spoke again.

"_Too late_," he said simply.

The Doctor paused.

Something about the way he'd said that last sentence…

"Why do you say that?" he asked, already uncertain as the words left his lips if he wanted to know the answer.

"_The drumming_," the Master replied, his tone reflecting a fear of himself that the Doctor hadn't heard there since he'd last spoken to the Master as the disfigured Doctor John Smith. "_Can't you hear it? I thought it would stop, but it never does, it never, ever stops, inside my head, the drumming, Doctor, the constant drumming_…"

"I can help you," the Doctor said- he wondered if the Master's time as Yana had made this 'drumming' thing worse than it had been or if this incarnation was simply more willing to talk about it than previous Masters-, getting back to his feet as he tried to find some way to get through to his old friend. "Please, let me _help_-"

"_It's everywhere_," the Master said, continuing as though the Doctor had never spoken. "_Listen, listen, _listen_… here come the drums, here come… the drums_…"

The faint sound of tapping on the other end of the line was something the Doctor would have normally dismissed, but when a glance up revealed a young man wearing a hooded top leaning against a wall tapping out an identical beat against his legs, he knew it was more than that.

The _scale _of what the Master must have done to spread that beat across the world…

"What have you done?" he asked, his voice low as he walked away from his previous seat but rising as he spoke. "Tell me how you've done this. What are those creatures, _tell me_!"

"_You hardly have time to help me_ now, _Doctor_," the Master said, his old fear gone to be replaced with the same smug self-confidence this incarnation had displayed on the television screen. "_You're on TV_!"

"Stop it, answer me-" the Doctor began.

"_No, really, you're on telly_!" the Master continued, sounding like a child wanting to share something with his parents. "_You and your little band- which, by the way, is ticking every demographic box, so congratulations on that; I still remember the days where even the_ aliens _just looked like you- look, there you are_!"

The Doctor didn't even have time to object to the Master's harsh dismissal of Adric, Nyssa and Turlough- the only non-human companions the Doctor had ever had with him when he was facing the Master-; as he realised he was standing in front of a small electrical shop, his eyes fell on the TV screen inside, displaying the pictures of himself, Martha and Jack as the newscaster described them as 'armed and extremely dangerous.

"_You're public enemies number one, two and three_!" the Master replied, the same smug glee in his voice that he'd possessed the first time he'd successfully built a time-flow analogue to disrupt the Doctor's experiments back in the Academy.

"_Oh_," he added, almost as though it was an afterthought that he'd nearly forgotten about, "_and you can tell 'Handsome Jack' that I've sent his little gang off on a wild goose chase to the Himalayas, so he won't be getting any help from them- and UNIT's finest are… well, a little 'tied up' right now, shall we say_?"

For a moment the Doctor wanted to ask what he'd meant by that- if he had done _anything _to Alistair and Benton the Doctor was going to make _sure _that the Master met justice this time-, but then he noticed Martha and Jack standing off to one side and brought his attention back to the present.

He had to have faith that the two old soldiers could handle themselves; right now he had his _current _companions to worry about more than anything else…

"_Now go on_," the Master continued, his voice now taking on an almost sing-song aspect. "_Off you go; why not start by turning to the_… right?"

Turning in the indicated direction, it didn't take the Doctor long to realise what the Master had been directing him to; a CCTV camera on the opposite wall, looking directly at them.

"He can see us!" he growled; he knew that he was essentially playing into his enemy's hands, but right now, with everything else going wrong in his life…

He'd be lying if he didn't enjoy being able to disable the camera with the sonic screwdriver; at least he wasn't _completely _powerless right now.

"_Ooh, you public menace_," the Master said, sounding almost scandalised. "_Better start running! Go on;_ run!"

Lowering the phone from his ear as he terminated the call, the Doctor looked grimly over at Jack and Martha.

"He's got control of everything," he said simply.

"What do we do?" Martha asked, as she looked bleakly at the window behind him.

"We've got nowhere to go…" Jack said, his stance firm but his expression one of resignation as he looked back at the Doctor.

"Doctor, _what_ do we do?" Martha asked, turning to face with a resolute glare in her eyes.

"We run," the Doctor said simply.

In the end, that was all they could do; with Jack's team out of action- whatever _that _meant-, the Doctor uncertain about UNIT's status after the Master's last comment, and absolutely _no _desire to drag any of his other past companions into it (Even Polly, Fitz, Trix and Anji were too risky; just because the Master had never _met _them didn't mean he didn't _know _about them)…

It was down to the three of them against the foe the Doctor had almost prayed never to see again even when he'd wanted to see him more than anything.

It was at times like this that the Doctor wished more than anything he _didn't _have to be the one to make these kind of decisions…


	7. Break It to Forge It

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: This features some 'clips' of the events of "Runaway Bride", but differences between the clips here and what happened originally are deliberate

Broken Faith

Sitting casually in the chair that now occupied the TARDIS console room- it was actually rather comfortable; the Master didn't know _why _he'd never had one of these installed in his own TARDIS-, he smiled slightly at the sight now playing on the TARDIS monitor as his new 'companion' watched the images unfold before her.

It hadn't been easy accessing the TARDIS databanks to display the Doctor's escapades last Christmas during that mess with the Racnoss while 'tweaking' things just enough to show what he wanted to show, but he was confident that it would pay off; after all, if the Valeyard could manipulate the Matrix itself to make that sham of a trial go his way- how that Doctor had _ever _survived so long he really didn't know; that multi-coloured fool had such a _ridiculously _high opinion of himself-, then he could _definitely _alter a few recordings in an obsolete TARDIS to omit certain details…

Realising that they were approaching the moment when his first real change occurred- he'd only shown her enough earlier to establish what the Doctor was up against; everything else she'd seen had been essentially what really happened the first time-, he stood up and moved away from the chair to better allow the young woman with him to watch what was unfolding before her.

Right now, the monitor showed the Doctor shrugging off a long brown robe and a golden mask he'd been wearing mid-way up a thin metal staircase, subsequently raising the sonic screwdriver to send a woman in what looked like a wedding dress swinging down from a massive web-like structure only to crash to the ground below him, the 'rope' she had been 'swinging' from easily several feet too long for her to reach the Doctor and land safely.

"You see?" the Master said, leaning in towards his companion's ear to whisper slightly in it, a broad grin on his face as she watched the Doctor simply glance down briefly at the bride before looking back at the massive red spider-like form of the Racnoss Empress. "He can't even bother to _try _and be interested in her fate; all he cares about is killing that thing."

"It's _dangerous_-" she began.

"And that means he has the right to automatically kill it?" the Master pointed out (It was almost _painful _having to sound like the Doctor right now, but it would be worth it in the long run; he just had to make her see things his way). "If the Doctor was the saint he _claims _to be he could probably figure out a way to just _contain _them, maybe move them somewhere else; I mean, look at what he did to her robo-forms!"

Looking back at the monitor, the woman was just in time see the robo-forms lower their heads as the Doctor- a massive remote control unit having just been removed from a pocket that could _never _have held it without his usual Time Lord advantages.

"_Robo-forms are not necessary_!" the Empress spat, glaring up at the Doctor as she spoke. "_My children may feast on _Martian _flesh_!"

"_Oh, but I'm not from Mars_," the Doctor replied coldly, glaring resolutely down at the Racnoss Empress.

"No…" the woman said, the weak sound of protest crossing her lips as she stared at the screen before her even as the Empress of the Racnoss asked the Doctor where he was from. "Doctor, don't do this… take them somewhere else… they don't _deserve _to _die_… they're _children_…"

"_My home planet is far away and long since gone_," the Doctor stated, continuing to stare down at the Empress (The Master briefly wondered what he meant about that, but dismissed it; he was probably just referring to the fact that Gallifrey for Earth at his point was far in the future, there was no way he meant what the wording _implied _he meant…). "_But its name lives on_…"

For a moment, the Doctor paused, and then he spoke again, his voice reflecting a solemn sense of pride in the word he had now decided to invoke. "_Gallifrey_."

As soon as the word had passed the Doctor's lips, the Empress flew into a rage, hissing and spitting as she waved her long blade-like arms around before her, all the while glaring at the Doctor.

"They _murdered _the Racnoss!" she screamed, clearly ready to tear the Doctor apart herself if he'd been closer to her.

"You_ did this_," the Doctor said simply, his tone cold and unforgiving as he removed the 'bomb-baubles', acquired from the Christmas tree earlier, from his pocket, glaring at the Empress all the while.

"_No…_" the Empress said, fear now in her voice as she realised what he was planning to do. "_No!_ Don't-"

Before she could say any more, the Doctor had released the 'bomb-baubles' into the air, subsequently taking the remote control in his hands and using it to send them all flying towards their respective targets, striking the walls of the corridors around the chamber where the Doctor faced his enemy.

As water flooded into the chamber from the holes the Doctor had created, flames blazing around him as the Empress screamed for her drowning children, all the Doctor did was stand and watch as a mother screamed for children that hadn't had time to do anything.

"No…" the woman whispered, shaking her head in denial, tears in her eyes as she watched the Doctor end 'innocent' lives. "He wouldn't…"

"He did," the Master stated simply, moving around to look at her more directly as he spoke. "Because he finally recognised that the universe doesn't respond to what he _says_; it will only respond to what he _does_… and what he _does _now is eliminate them with _extreme _prejudice."

"He's _not _a killer…" the woman protested weakly.

"Video evidence to the contrary _right _in front of you," the Master countered, indicating the monitor with a brief tap of his finger as he looked pointedly at her. "The universe won't respond to kindness and peace; just like the Doctor realised after you left, it's going to make a more… _active _approach to make any kind of impact on the universe."

Giving her a moment to consider that, he smiled as he stepped back slightly to look her in the eyes, making sure she understood what he was about to say (Taking care not to resort to his old hypnosis at the same time, of course; the last thing he wanted was to do _anything _that would make the Doctor think this wasn't _completely _her own choice). "Which is why _my _plan will work."

In many ways, that was the moment when the Master knew he'd won her over; the moment when she hesitated to reply.

Her guilt at the knowledge that she had driven 'her Doctor' (It was almost pathetic, really; did these people really think the Doctor could ever actually _care _about them?) to kill had been an excellent starting-point on which to build; from there, everything else had fallen into place all too easily.

"But all those _people_…" she began at last, her voice weak and uncertain from the beginning.

"A few thousands dead to save billions in the future?" the Master asked (No point getting into specifics right now, of course; he was giving an approximate proportion, and that was enough to ensure she understood). "You can hardly tell me the Doctor's _never_made choices like that himself."

"But they were _evil_-" his new 'companion' weakly protested.

"What's more evil; standing by and doing nothing because the alternative isn't exactly pretty, or doing what _has _to be done and killing a few now to save more later?" the Master asked, inwardly rather proud of the way he'd phrased that last sentence; it really _did_ almost sound like something the Doctor would say when trying to justify some of his 'sins' (As the Doctor doubtless thought of those rare moments when he allowed himself to do the sensible thing and _kill _his opponents).

It wasn't _exactly _accurate, of course- even when the Doctor _did _do something on that scale, like when he'd destroyed that alternate Earth Mortimus had created (He'd almost been shocked he'd never tried something like that strategy himself before he reminded himself that he wanted the Doctor to _see _his victory more than anything) he'd only done it because there was absolutely no other option to save everything else-, but it was close enough to make his point; he could already _see _the cogs turning in her mind as she reflected on what he had said.

The Doctor had killed innocent lives to save the day before.

If it was all right for him to do that to save people on the _short _term, then it was essentially perfectly all right for the Master to do the same thing while taking a _long_-term view of the situation.

She was convinced that his plans would make things better- and they _would _make things better; the new Time Lord empire he established would end the mistakes of the past and establish a new order under _his _rule-, and she would side with him over the Doctor; that was all he had been seeking since this began.

As he looked at the young woman before him, tears in her eyes as she watched the Doctor allow children to die, the Master grinned.

He'd done it.

His weapon was forged and ready for use.

Now all he needed was the Doctor to use it _against_…

In the meantime…

The Master allowed himself a slight smile as his eyes briefly studied the young woman before him.

In the meantime, he wouldn't mind exploring this new body's… urges… for a change…


	8. The Master's Secrets

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: Once again, the Master's 'conversation' with the Toclafane in Downing Street happened the same as it did before; I just felt that it would be more interesting exploring the Doctor's thoughts on this situation now as opposed to him, particularly since I'm planning for the big revelation about the Master's wife to be revealed in the next chapter…

Broken Faith

As he sat in the warehouse that they had taken as the closest thing to a secure headquarters they could find, staring silently at the laptop standing before him as he scanned the web pages for information on their enemy- good thing Martha had a laptop with a decent battery; the last thing they needed was to run out of power at a time like this-, the Doctor only just heard the sound of footsteps from the other end of the warehouse as Martha returned; Jack had taken up watch while she went to grab some food.

"How was it?" Jack asked as Martha walked up to him; the Doctor briefly glanced up to see that she was carrying a plastic bag that she handed to Jack, but otherwise his attention remained on the laptop.

"I don't think anyone saw me," Martha said dismissively. "Anything new?"

In response, Jack indicated his Vortex Manipulator. "I've got this tuned into the government wavelength so we can follow what Saxon's doing."

"Yeah," Martha said dismissively, as she took a smaller paper bag out of the plastic one and began to walk towards him, "I _meant_ about my family!"

"Still says the Jones family taken in for questioning," the Doctor replied, as he reached up to take the bag from Martha as he spoke. "Tell you what, though; no mention of Leo."

"He's not as daft as he looks," Martha said, a brief grin crossing her face at the thought before it became grimmer once again. "I'm talking about my _brother_ on the _run_; how did this _happen_?"

"Nice chips," Jack said as he sat down on an upturned box opposite the Doctor, prompting the Doctor to eat a chip himself.

"Actually," he said, nodding slightly as he took another one- after spending the last few hours worrying about finding a safe location it was nice to be able to talk about something as simple as chips-, "they're not bad."

For a moment, the warehouse was silent as the three of them began to eat, only for Jack to break it.

"So, Doctor," he asked, looking inquiringly at the Time Lord, "who is he? How come the ancient society of Time Lords created a psychopath?"

"And… what is he to you?" Martha asked, taking up the question. "Like a colleague, or…?"

"A friend at first," the Doctor said, eating another chip as he allowed his mind to drift briefly back to those old days at the Academy, when he and the Deca had been the proverbial _crème de la crème _of their year before he was expelled after that mess with Rallon, Millennia, and the Celestial Toymaker…

The Doctor shook his head; reflecting on the past wouldn't change anything. He'd lost count of the times after his regeneration he'd contemplated trying to find a Chronovore to see if he could learn what Artemis had done to Mortimus after that mess with the Vardans, or thought about trying to penetrate that time tunnel the Rani had created to trap his first two selves to see if she was still there, but in the end he'd always stopped himself; getting lost in the past changed nothing, particularly not the more… unpleasant parts, and it would have been too risky to try and get them all out on his own even if he'd been able to guarantee that he'd be able to get them out and they _weren't _all deranged homicidal maniacs.

"Thought you were going to say he was your secret brother or something," Martha commented, allowing herself a brief sarcastic laugh at that idea.

"You've been watching too much TV," the Doctor commented with a sharp glance at his companion, prompting Martha to roll her eyes slightly as he ate another chip.

"But all the legends of Gallifrey made it sound so perfect," Jack asked, looking curiously at the Doctor.

"Well, perfect to look at, maybe," the Time Lord admitted, leaning back slightly in his chair as he allowed his memory to drift backwards, to those long-ago days when he'd been nothing more than another Gallifreyian with a bit of an attitude as far as his teachers were concerned. "And it was, it was beautiful. They used to call it the Shining World of the Seven Systems. And on the continent of Wild Endeavour, in the mountains of Solace and Solitude, there stood the Citadel of the Time Lords…"

For a moment, as he spoke, he allowed himself to remember the site of the Citadel bathed in brilliant orange light from the setting suns in late winter, snow all around as he went out for a late-evening walk, Quences looking disapprovingly at him for playing when he should be studying after he went out to find the young boy he had been…

"The oldest and most mighty race in the universe," the Doctor continued, the memory of the head of his house still hurting him; even after so many years, it still hurt to know that he had let Quences down, no matter that he liked to think he had succeeded in making a greater impact than the Head of Lungbarrow could have ever imagined he would make. "Looking down on the galaxies below, sworn never to interfere, only to watch."

"Children of Gallifrey," he continued, memories of those long-distant days back when he was still known primarily as 'Snail' to his Cousins, "were taken from their families at the age of eight, to enter the Academy. Some say that's where it all began, when he was a child…"

For a moment, the Doctor recalled his last secret about his encounter with Death and 'John Smith' in his seventh incarnation- the revelation that _he_, not the Master, had murdered Torvic-, but shook it off; as John had pointed out, he couldn't have known what Death would do to fulfill her deal, and it would take more time than he had right now to explain the full details of that mess.

Besides, he'd always felt that the events he now recounted had contributed to the Master's actions from the beginning; he'd always had a bit of a dark streak even _before _Torvic's demise, it had just become more pronounced from then…

"That's when the Master saw eternity," he said, his tone grim at the recollection. "As a novice, he was taken for initiation. He stood in front of the Untempered Schism; it's a…", he paused for a moment, seeking the right term, before he continued, "…_gap_ in the fabric of reality through which could be seen the whole of the vortex. You stand there, eight years old, staring at the raw_ power _of Time and Space, just a child… Some would be inspired. Some would run away. And some would go mad."

With that said, he sighed reflectively, shaking his head as he leaned back.

"Oh, I dunno…" he muttered, wishing he had a better answer for Jack's question; Koschei might have only _truly _become the Master after that mess with the Darkheart, but there were so many other factors that had contributed to him being there in the first place that he still could barely be certain what the first true catalyst had been no matter how much he might try and get inside his enemy's mind.

"What about you?" Martha asked, looking curiously at him.

"Oh, the ones that ran away!" the Doctor said, grateful to get back to a more positive matter; even then, he liked to think, he'd recognised that there were some areas that nobody should try and explore in great depth, and the power of the Vortex had been one of them. "I never stopped."

For a moment the Doctor thought that Martha was about to ask something else, but then Jack's Vortex manipulator began to beep, prompting the ex-Time-Agent to put his chips down and examine the manipulator's controls.

"Encrpyted channel," he muttered, staring thoughtfully at the small device. "With files attached… don't recognise it…"

"Mmm," the Doctor mumbled, indicating the laptop as he chewed on his latest chip, "patch it through to the laptop."

"Um…" Jack said, his tone making it clear that this was something he wanted both of them to hear as they looked at him. "Since we're telling stories, there's something I haven't told you."

"Such as?" the Doctor asked curiously.

"Well," Jack said, shrugging off his coat as he pulled a cable out of a socket on the manipulator, standing up to walk towards the laptop as the Doctor stood up, "when I got here, after I learned… well, what I was… I was recruited by a group who had some… interest… in my services."

"Really?" the Doctor said, raising an eyebrow at his old friend as Jack sat down opposite the laptop. "What, Alistair pick you up at some point?"

"Alistair?" Martha asked, looking uncertainly at him.

"Old friend of mine- possibly my _oldest _friend-; ran the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce- military group dedicated to protecting Earth from aliens- back in the seventies or eighties; still try and touch base with him when I get a spare moment-" the Doctor began, only to halt mid-sentence when he saw the logo that had appeared on the laptop's screen after Jack had linked the manipulator to the computer.

A large, capital 'T', formed by multiple hexagons, with a word below it that the Doctor had hoped he would never see again.

_Torchwood_.

The organisation whose foolish arrogance had cost him the woman he-

"You work for Torchwood?" he said, glaring at the now-immortal captain, pushing that thought to the back of his mind; this was _not _the time to get into _that_ matter.

"I swear to you," Jack began, turning slightly to look at him, "it's different, it's changed, there's only a half-dozen of us left-"

"Everything Torchwood did and you're _part_ of it?" the Doctor said, almost wishing he was still his previous self so that he could feel more justified in punching Jack- that incarnation had been one of his more short-tempered ones, really; even his _sixth _hadn't lost his temper to the scale his predecessor had when he'd been _really _hacked off-; he'd almost have preferred learning that Jack had worked for the _Celestial Intervention Agency _rather than Torchwood, at least the Agency had known what they were _doing _when hacking into rifts like that…

"The old regime was destroyed at Canary Wharf," Jack continued, looking back at the Doctor with an earnest frustration in his tone and expression. "I rebuilt it, I changed it, and when I did that, I did it for _you_; in yourhonour."

For a moment, the two men could only stare at each other, Martha left off to the side- evidently wondering what Torchwood had done to earn that kind of contempt from the Doctor-, before turning back to the laptop, the Doctor reaching over to tap the 'Enter' key; he and Jack could talk about this 'Torchwood' business after the Master was out of the way. Almost instantly a video clip appeared on the laptop's screen, revealing a woman in approximately her forties, with short blonde hair and wearing a green blouse, sitting behind a desk in what looked like a private home office of some sort.

"_If I haven't returned to my desk by 2200_," she said to the camera before her, "_this file will be e-mailed to Torchwood. Which means if you're watching this, then I'm_…"

The woman paused for a moment, evidently trying to collect herself at the thought, before she continued to speak. "_Anyway, the Saxon files are attached_-" a light blue oval with 'File Attachment' in the middle appeared in the lower-right corner of the video, "_but take a look at the Archangel document. That's when it all started, when Harry Saxon became Minister in charge of launching the Archangel network_."

With that, the video clip ended, displaying instead an image of a globe with fifteen points around it highlighted in a grid formation, "ARCHANGEL: THE FUTURE OF GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS" written above it; there were even pictures of satellites above what looked like Europe on the right of the screen.

"What's the Archangel Network?" the Doctor asked, staring in confusion at the image before him; he liked to think that he was aware of most of Earth's significant technological advances, but this one wasn't ringing any bells…

"I've got Archangel," Martha put in, pulling out her phone as she looked at the Doctor, uncertain why he was asking but responding nevertheless. "Everyone's got it."

"It's the mobile phone network," Jack explained, indicating the grid pattern displayed around the globe on the screen before them. "'Cause look, it's gone worldwide; they've got fifteen satellites in orbit. Even the other networks are carried by Archangel."

With that statement, the last piece fell into place in the Doctor's mind.

"It's in the _phones_!" he said, his voice low as he pulled out the sonic screwdriver and turned it onto Martha's phone, now held in his hand. "Oh, I said he was a hypnotist. Wait, wait, wait…"

Inwardly, he sighed; the sonic screwdriver evidently wasn't going to _quite _cut it in this instance.

"Hold on," he said, reaching over to hit the phone against the 'table' they were using for the laptop, allowing himself a brief mental cheer as the phone subsequently began to emit the same four-beat rhythm that the Master had drummed out over the phone line during their last 'conversation'.

"There it is!" the Doctor said, unable to conceal his admiration for the scale of the Master's scheme no matter how much he disapproved of the morality (And this 'drum' thing still left him with more than a few questions that needed answers). "That rhythym; it's everywhere… ticking away in the subconscious…"

For a moment the three of them stood in silence, listening to the beeping from the phones that they had always subconsciously registered without ever knowing it, before Martha spoke. "What is it, mind control?"

"No, no, no, no, subtler than that," the Doctor said, his voice low as he ran over how this kind of control would work (It had been a long time since he'd had to deal with this kind of subtle hypnosis; most of his other mind-control-using enemies tended to use more direct matters these days). "Any strong-willed people would question it, but contained in that rhythym, in layers of code, "Vote Saxon; believe in me". Whispering to the world…"

It was only when he'd paused to contemplate the scale of this latest trick of the Master's that the last piece of the puzzle fell into place.

"Oh!" he said; he almost felt like hitting himself for not realising it earlier. "Yes! _That's _how he hid himself from me! 'Cause I should have sensed there was another Time Lord on Earth; I should've known _way _back, but the signal cancelled him out!"

"Any way you can stop it?" Jack asked, as the Doctor stood back and removed his glasses.

"Not from down here," the Doctor replied grimly, putting the sonic screwdriver and the glasses back in his inside pocket as he glanced between his two companions. "But we know how he's doing it."

"And we can fight back?" Martha asked, her tone making the question part-statement as she stared resolutely at the laptop that displayed the key to the Master's power.

"Oh yes!" the Doctor said, sharing a brief grin with Martha as his mind already went over all the resources he had available to him at present.

This wasn't going to be the easiest encounter he'd ever had with the Master, but there was one matter on which he was already resolved; it was _going _to be the last.

He wasn't going to let his enemy escape him _this _time…

* * *

AN 2: Sorry for another episode-identical chapter; the next one begins with the _real_ changes- and also ends the 'flashbacks' for the foreseeable future, as we jump straight to the Doctor, Martha and Jack after they've witnessed the Master's meeting with the President before going onto the "Valiant", culminating in the coming of the Toclafane and the true identity of the Master's wife…


	9. Mrs Saxon

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me (Particularly for this chapter; I'd REALLY like to know what people think of my decision for the Master's wife…)

AN: Just to clarify, this chapter omits the scene with the Doctor modifying the TARDIS keys- it was exactly the same as the original and it added NOTHING I really wanted to explore here anyway- and jumps straight to the aftermath of the confrontation between the Master and the President, with the meeting with the Toclafane being moved to the _Valiant_

AN 2: Another reference to "Filling in the Blanks" here, just to warn you in advance

Broken Faith

Standing silently on the airport runway where the Prime Minister and the President were meeting to discuss the Toclafane, the Doctor, Martha and Jack could only stare silently at the sight of the Master- this incarnation was a lot more 'jocular' than previous Masters, with that 'zipper on the mouth' thing he seemed to have done; the Doctor wasn't sure if a Master willing to make jokes like that was a good thing or a bad thing in this situation- talking with the President of the United States, the two men 'agreeing'- or rather, the President deciding and the Master just going along with it- to transfer the meeting to the _Valiant_.

The Doctor couldn't help but be grateful at that part of recent events; at least, with the _Valiant _some way away from any land, if the situation became… difficult… there couldn't be that many innocents available for the Master to use against him…

Of course, the Master's wife was still an unknown factor- all they could see was the back of her head, her face remaining out of sight even as the Master's security force walked her off towards the Prime Minister's private plane-, but the Doctor was fairly certain she didn't seem like a threat; he'd have to figure out what role she played in the Master's plan once this whole mess was over…

For a moment, as the Master gazed around the airport, his gaze briefly seemed to settle on the Doctor despite the perception filter, but the moment passed as he walked off towards one of his nearby cars, only to turn back around with a broad grin on his face as a police van suddenly pulled up nearby, the back opening to reveal three specific passengers.

"Oh my God…" Martha whispered, staring in horror at the sight of her parents and sister, hands bound as they were forcibly hauled out of the van, yelling at Saxon with statements where she didn't need to hear the specific words to know what they wree saying.

"Don't move," the Doctor said, leaning over slightly to place a hand on Martha's arm; the last thing they needed was to give the game away at this crucial step.

"But…" Martha repeated, still staring out at her family as they were moved to another truck.

"_Don't_," the Doctor repeated, wishing he had the time or luxury to show more sympathy for Martha's desire to save her family.

For a moment Martha stood silently, her eyes fixed on the Master as he grinned sadistically at the imprisoned Jones family.

"I'm gonna kill him," she said coldly, her fists clenched.

"What say I use this perception filter to walk up behind him and break his neck?" Jack asked, his tone grim as he glared at the Master before him.

"Now that sounds like Torchwood," the Doctor muttered, glancing back over at Jack with a short glare.

"Still a good plan," Jack muttered.

The Doctor wasn't sure what was worse; the fact that Jack believed that, or the fact that, as he stood there, watching the Master grin as Martha's family were taken away, the memory of Grace's body hitting the floor of the TARDIS after she had released him from his bounds, or of Kamelion asking to be killed after he was used by the Master once again, left him thinking that it would almost be worth it.

If nothing else, the Master _did _seem to have a new regenerative cycle; maybe if he killed this one the next Master would be unstable enough to be treated…

"He's a Time Lord," the Doctor said at last, pushing those thoughts to one side; he'd never deliberately sought the Master's death before, and keeping him alive in the present had taken on a new importance after the Time War. "Which makes him my responsibility. I'm not here to kill him. I'm here to save him."

Evidently deciding not to pursue that matter further, Jack glanced at his vortex manipulator, tapping a few controls on it.

"Aircraft carrier _Valiant_…" he muttered, recalling the name of the venue the President had mentioned. "That's a UNIT ship, at 58.2 North, 10.02 East."

"How do we get on board?" Martha asked resolutely.

"Does that thing work as a teleport?" the Doctor asked, leaning over towards Jack to look curiously at the vortex manipulator.

"Since you revamped it, yeah," Jack said, nodding briefly as he tapped further controls on the manipulator before he turned his wrist to hold it out for the Doctor and Martha. "Coordinates set."

As the Doctor and Martha placed their hands on the manipulator, Jack activated the device…

* * *

…And, following a brief glow, all three of them found themselves in what seemed to be a service corridor, the Doctor on his knees in the middle as Martha clutched her suddenly-aching head against one wall, Jack collapsing with a gasp as he grabbed onto a nearby railing to stop himself hitting the ground completely (Evidently the manipulator needed a little time to _completely _adapt to serving as a teleporter rather than the time machine it had been at first.

"That thing is _rough_!" Martha muttered, wincing at the already-fading pain in her head.

"I've had worse nights!" Jack muttered, teeth gritted as he got back to his feet, allowing himself a brief grunt as he shook his head to clear the last of the pain before he turned back to look at his friends. "Welcome to the _Valiant_."

Glancing over at a nearby window, Martha's eyes widened at the sight of sunlight.

"It's dawn?" she said, allowing her confusion to show as she walked over to look out of the window, her confusion increasing as she saw no sign of water. "Hold on, I thought this was a ship; where's the sea?"

"A ship for the 21st century," Jack explained, as he walked over to stand beside her, the Doctor looking out over their shoulders. "Protecting the skies of planet Earth."

The Doctor couldn't help but smile slightly.

"Flying fortresses…" he said, shaking his head wistfully as he glanced around himself. "These places are _always _interesting…"

He winced slightly at a memory. "I just hope this isn't going to turn out like the first time I visited these places; my companions thought I was dead for six months because the guards got too trigger-happy …"

"Plus you weren't where you should be, huh?" Jack pointed out, shaking his head as he looked at the Doctor. "Why am I not surprised…?"

"That was _eight _lifetimes ago; I'm a bit more careful these days!" the Doctor retorted, only to shake his head as Martha turned around to look at him in shock at the implications of his last statement (He _really_ needed to start telling his companions about his ability to regenerate more regularly; how often would he have to waste time convincing people that he was the man they knew before he took the hint?). "Look, I'll explain that later; right now we've got to find the Master, come _on_!"

With that, the Time Lord turned around and began to run down the corridors, leaving Jack and Martha with only enough time to exchange brief glances before they hurried after the Doctor. It didn't take long to catch up with him, but they'd barely turned around a couple of corridors while following him before the Doctor paused at a junction in the corridor.

"We've no time for sight-seeing-!" Jack began.

"No, wait!" the Doctor said, his voice low as he held up one hand in a 'quiet' gesture, Jack and Martha being left to simply look around at their surroundings in confusion.

"Can't you hear it?" the Doctor asked, a slight trace of excitement in his voice, as though he himself was uncertain he was hearing what he thought he was hearing and was thus reluctant to get his hopes up.

"Hear what?" Jack hissed, looking in frustration at his old friend.

"Doctor," Martha said, evidently having had enough of the Time Lord's inability to explain anything, "my family's on board…"

"Brilliant!" the Doctor said just as Martha had begun to walk away, a broad grin spreading across his face. Before Martha or Jack could ask what he was referring to, he'd turned around and hurried down a nearby flight of stairs, leaving Jack and Martha with no other option but to follow him to learn what he was so excited about. As the Doctor hurried towards a door with a large '4' on it, for a moment his two companions remained confused about his actions…

Then he opened the door, revealing what seemed to be a storeroom full of boxes and the TARDIS positioned directly in front of them, and his reasons became clear.

"Oh, at last!" the Doctor grinned, Martha cheering alongside him as the two of them hurried towards the ship that had been their shared home for so many months (With the obvious exception of their time in 1969), Jack's confusion barely registering as the Doctor slipped the key into the lock, only for their expressions to immediately fall as they took in the TARDIS interior.

In contrast to the warm golden glow that had always surrounded them when they were in this room in the past, the TARDIS's interior now was filled with a dim, blood-red light, the familiar comforting hum now replaced with a sound like a weakened heartbeat combined with the tolling of the cloister bell, almost as though the TARDIS was ill.

What was worse for the Doctor, however, was the elaborate metal grille erected around the control console, completely cutting the ship's controls off from outside contact, wires and tubes of all kinds stretching from the surrounding walls to connect to the cage that now kept the heart of his oldest companion contained from all outside influence…

If the Doctor had been the type to swear, he would have done so.

This was almost worse than when the TARDIS had been infected with the paradox biodata virus when it was trying to preserve his third incarnation; at least then the TARDIS had taken on the infection by _choice_, even if it hadn't been planning for its interior to be warped into the bone favoured by the Faction (_the Dalekanium generated by the new nanites_)…

"What the hell's he done?" Jack asked, looking in shock at the sight before him.

"Don't touch it!" the Doctor yelled, his tone grim as he stared at the sight before him, possible motives for this mutilation of his ship racing through his mind, barely registering Jack's reply.

"What's he done, though?" Martha asked, her own concern for his ship breaking into his mind. "Sounds like it's sick."

_Sick_…

"It can't be…" the Doctor whispered, his voice low as he ran around to the other side of the console, briefly noting the pipe on the floor leading deeper into his ship. "No, no, no, no, no, no, it can't be."

"Doctor," Martha asked, looking urgently at him, concern for her family apparently pushed aside in favour of this new dilemma, "what is it?"

"He's cannibalised the TARDIS," the Doctor said, his voice barely containing his anger at this brutal treatment of the one thing that had been there for him throughout all of his incarnations.

"Is this what I think it is?" Jack asked, his tone only giving a vague impression of his fear.

For a moment the Doctor couldn't reply, his mind dominated by the horror of what the Master had done.

He'd thought that the Eigen Ram during that affair with the Mad Mind of Bophemeral and the Quantum Archangel was the worst thing the Master could have ever done- trying to force the TARDIS to Time Ram its own past self-, but _this_…

"It's a _paradox machine_," he said, his voice barely containing his rage as he stared at the horrific sight before him, already scanning the structure before him for anything he could use to determine something more specific about its purpose, his eyes swiftly falling on a small device near the base of the machine…

"What?" Jack asked, walking over to stand beside the Doctor as he crouched down to examine the device, quickly identifying it as a pressure gauge measuring the Huon energy being drawn from the heart of the TARDIS- made more potent by the energy he'd absorbed from the recently-active Cardiff rift such a short time before he'd lost the ship; the TARDIS would have been practically operating at full capacity by that point- and pumped directly into the machine.

"What's wrong?" Martha asked anxiously, looking at the machine in confusion.

"We don't have much time," the Doctor explained, tapping the gauge briefly as he looked over at Martha. "Once this hits red, it activates. At this speed," he paused to grab Jack's right wrist, pulling the arm in front of his face to study Jack's watch, "it'll trigger at… two minutes past eight."

"First contact is at eight," Jack muttered, clearly horrified at the implications. "Then, two minutes later…"

He might not have been able to finish the sentence, but he didn't need to; whatever the Master was planning for that time, the Doctor doubted it would be good.

"But what's it _for_?" Martha put in urgently. "What does a paradox machine do?"

"More important, can you stop it?" Jack asked, evidently recognising that there was no way for the Doctor to answer that question in this time frame; there were too many possible uses for a paradox machine for him to know what this one was capable of.

"Not till I know what it's doing," the Doctor muttered, looking grimly up at the machine, wishing once again that he could do more to help his oldest friend recover as soon as possible. "Touch the wrong bit, blow up the solar system."

For a moment there was only a solemn silence, and then Martha crouched down beside him.

"Then we've got to get to the Master!" she said, her expression resolute as she looked at the Doctor (For a moment the Doctor couldn't help but be touched; even after her initial hostility at him for getting her family involved in this mess, she _still _had faith that he could save the day…

"Yeah, how're we gonna stop him?" Jack put in.

"Oh, I've got a way…" the Doctor said simply, only to be met with silence from Jack and Martha, prompting him to turn and look between them with an apologetic glance. "Sorry; didn't I mention it?"

As Martha tilted her head at him in a frustrated manner, the Doctor simply smiled apologetically- he'd have to give her a more detailed apology once this mess was over- before he stood up to hurry out of the TARDIS, Jack and Martha close behind him.

"But first," the Doctor continued, glancing back at his ship one last time before they returned to the more centralised corridors of the _Valiant_, "we have to find…"

Almost as soon as he'd said 'find', the Doctor had spun around and raised his finger to his lips, Martha and Jack halting their run as he looked urgently at them. Before Jack could ask what the Doctor was doing, the sound of footsteps coming down from one end of the corridor answered their question. Waving his companions up against the wall, the Doctor simply waited for a few seconds until the man had walked past them- most likely a bodyguard given his suit- before he followed on after the man, correctly deducing that he would be heading for the main conference room.

As their 'leader' finally walked through the door into the conference room- various men in suits casually sitting around a central table as the bodyguards stood at the corners of the room, all of them facing a man the Doctor vaguely recognised as President Winters- he rarely ever paid attention to who was in political office at what time unless something significant took place during their time, such as Churchill and the Second World War-, addressing the rest of the people in the room.

"…for as long as man has looked to the stars," Winters was saying, looking calmly out at the room before him, "he has wondered what mysteries they hold. Now we know we are not alone…"

"This plan," Jack whispered over to the Doctor, drawing his attention away from the President's speech (Not that the Doctor cared much about that; these events shouldn't be happening in the first place, so it wasn't like he was missing anything of _genuine _historical importance), "you gonna tell us?"

"If I can get this," the Doctor replied, taking care to keep his voice low as he held up the key he currently wore around his neck, "around the Master's neck, cancel out his perception, they'll see him for real. It's just…" he groaned slightly as he scanned the room full of bodyguards, "hard to go unnoticed when everyone is on red alert. If they stop me, you've got a key."

"Yes, sir," Jack said briefly.

"I'll get him," Martha added, her voice making her resolve clear as they turned their attention back to the speech, all of them waiting for the moment when attention would be off the Master as Winters continued to speak.

"…ask the human race to join with me in welcoming our friends," Winters continued, as he stepped back slightly to raise one hand as though presenting something to his audience. "I give you the Toclafane."

With that, four spheres suddenly appeared around Winters in a glowing blue light (The spheres themselves were silver, which at least answered the Doctor's questions about their colour), meeting with brief shocked gasps from those around them before Winters spoke again.

"My name is Arthur Coleman Winters," he said, addressing the spheres relatively calmly. "President Elect of the United States of America, and Designated Representative of the United Nations…"

Once again, the Doctor was only partly listening to Winters as he tried to assert himself; with attention currently focused away from the Master, he was taking the chance to edge around the wall towards the Master's seat, wishing he knew what was making his old friend _grin _so much (As well as the reason for the empty seat beside him; where was the mysterious _Mrs _Saxon in all this?)…

"_You're not the Master_," one of the spheres said as it hovered around Winters, briefly drawing the Doctor's attention back to the meeting before him.

"_We like the Mr Master_," another sphere said.

"_We _don't _like you_," a third one muttered, its 'tone'- as much as a sphere could be said to have a tone of voice- sounding almost harsh.

"I… can be master… if you so wish," Winters said, evidently somewhat confused about this latest turn of events (Yet another reason why the Doctor had never felt entirely comfortable with America, he reflected, continuing to edge towards the Master as Winters grew increasingly flustered; it sometimes seemed like Grace and Peri were the only two people he'd met from that continent in this time frame who _didn't _freak out and start acting like idiots whenever they were faced with what he had to deal with on a regular basis).

"_Man is stupid_," one of the spheres said dismissively.

"_Master is our friend_," another added.

"_Where's my Master, pretty please_?" the third sphere- sounding almost feminine, the Doctor noted; he wondered if that was any indication of gender or if the Toclafane just assumed that kind of vocal distinction for the convenience of others- asked, sounding almost saddened at the Master's absence.

"Oh, all right then," the Master said, throwing up his hands in mock exasperation, "it's me! Ta-da!" he added, walking to the head of the table with his arms spread out, laughing at the incredulous looks he was drawing from the rest of the people at the table.

"Sorry, sorry," he said, looking around in a sarcastically apologetic manner at the people before him, twirling his fingers around his head as he spoke. "I have this effect, people just get _obsessed_. Is it the smile, is it the aftershave, is it the capacity to laugh at myself? I don't know; it's _crazy_!"

"Saxon," Winters said, glaring at the Master, "what are you talking about?"

As though that had been his cue, the Master turned around to glare at Winters, all frivolity gone from his appearance as he stared at the President.

"I'm taking control, Uncle Sam," the Master said coldly. "Starting with you."

With that, he turned to look pointedly at one of the Toclafane. "Kill him."

With that, the sphere he'd just spoken to moved in front of the Master, four large blades emitted from its lower end- or at least the end facing the ground; how were you meant to know what way was up or down when dealing with a race that looked just like a simple silver ball?- and fired some kind of red energy weapon at Winters, causing him to collapse into flaming ash.

Even as the people around the room screamed in shock, the Master's security team had automatically turned to aim weapons at the others in the room, the Master clapping and laughing with glee as he turned to run up the stairs towards the control deck, subsequently turning around to look pointedly at everyone before him.

"_Nobody move_!" he said, glaring out at the group before him as he turned to look at one of the nearby cameras, the operators either under his thrall or simply so caught up in routine they didn't know what else to do. "Now then! Peoples of the Earth, please attend carefully."

The Doctor couldn't stop himself; one hand clutched around the key, he charged forward, desperate to reach his enemy…

"Stop him!" the Master yelled, two of his guards instantly grabbing the Doctor before he could reach his old friend, forcing the Time Lord to his knees as they yanked the TARDIS key off his neck.

"We meet at last, Doctor!" the Master grinned (The Doctor supposed that statement was accurate enough; this _was_ the two Time Lords face-to-face in their current incarnations for the first time since the Master had regenerated) as he looked over at the Doctor. "Oh, I _love _saying that!"

"Stop this!" the Doctor yelled, once again wishing he'd practised his Venusian aikido more regularly after he'd regained his memory; he really needed to work on his ability to _escape _these kind of traps. "Stop it _now_!"

"What; stop when I'm _winning_?" the Master retorted, grinning back at the Doctor. "Besides, after your stupid little perception filter trick I think I'm entitled to jump ahead to my own contribution to the party; if my men will allow you to turn around a few vital degrees, I _think _you'll find that my secret weapon is just about to enter this room right about… _now_."

Forcibly turned around at the sound of a door opening almost as soon as the last syllable had passed the Master's lips, the Doctor was just in time to hear a gunshot and watch as Jack- whose perception filter had apparently ceased to protect him just as it had failed to shield the Doctor- fell to the ground, a bullet directly in his forehead almost exactly between his eyes on the bridge of his nose, Martha staring down at the body in horror.

For a moment, the Doctor didn't know what was meant to be so impressive about that; seeing through the perception filter was unsettling, but he could think of several beings off the top of his head who could shoot with that degree of skill after only a few months of dedicated training-

Then he realised the identity of the person who was actually holding the gun, standing in front of the door that served as the main entrance to this conference room, dressed in a smart cream-coloured jacket and black skirt that probably cost about as much as her mother had made in a year before he'd come into their lives, her formerly blonde hair now apparently dyed brown and her eyes colder than they'd ever been, and his blood ran cold.

_No_… he thought inwardly, staring in horror at the sight before him. _No… it can't be… it's _impossible_… she _WOULDN'T…

But his senses couldn't deny the evidence in front of him.

She was here, she was real, and she was _married _to the _Master_…

"_ROSE_?" he yelled in horror.

Rose Tyler- Rose _Saxon_- smiled at him.

"Hello, Doctor," she said simply.

Then her eyes flicked downwards to look at Jack, the hole in his head already healing as the Doctor followed her gaze, and her eyes widened in confusion.

"What…?" she began, staring uncertainly at the healing wound.

The Doctor had never before been so grateful that this body enjoyed running so much; if he'd been less physically fit, he had little doubt that he would have had a heart attack (He still occasionally felt a twinge in the right one every time the 'anniversary'- approximately, anyway; his eighth self's constant bouts of amnesia made dating along his personal timeline even _more _difficult than usual- of Roz's death came about; that one had _not _been pleasant…).

Rose clearly _didn't _know about Jack's ability to come back from the dead.

Which meant that she'd just shot the former Time Agent in the belief that he would _stay _dead.

_Rassilon, _NO… the Doctor thought, his vocal chords practically paralysed in horror at the sight before him, even as he noted with relief that Rose showed no signs of wanting to shoot _Martha _(A vague part of his mind wondered why that was, but the rest of him was too shaken at this latest discovery).

Rose Tyler was back…

And she was a _killer_…


	10. Here Come the Drums

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

Broken Faith

"_What have you DONE to her_?" the Doctor roared, straining against his captors as he glared at the Master, trying not to look at Rose as she looked in confusion at Jack's still-healing head wound; he vaguely registered Martha looking in shock at the new arrival after learning her identity, but right now- as much as he wished he could talk to her- he had more immediate issues to attend to.

"'Done to her'?" the Master repeated, smiling mockingly back at his old friend. "Oh, just showed her a few simple truths about the universe that you don't seem to have shared with her; how she reacted to them is her choice alone."

"No…" the Doctor insisted, his voice practically a growl as he glared at the Master, once again wishing for a few precious moments that he believed in violence enough to punch the man before him for saying such lies. "Rose wouldn't do this; you're _controlling _her-"

"Come _on_, Doctor, you really think I'd go to all the trouble of using hypnosis on _her_; the amount of effort I'd need to make her convincing enough to fool you while also making her loyal to me wasn't worth doing it _that _way," the Master asked, smirking slightly as he indicated one of the figures holding the Doctor down. "Him, on the other hand… well, the better half here might be willing to take me at face value, but I needed to make sure _he_ doesn't remember what happened when we'd met before, didn't I?"

Looking over at the figure in question- an older man that the rest of the Master's staff, apparently in his late fifties, but otherwise still clearly in good physical shape-, the Doctor had to admit that the man _did _seem familiar…

Then his memory caught up with his eyes- he sometimes had a terrible memory for faces, particularly when they hadn't spent much time in the TARDIS; with his more regular companions the ship could 'compensate' for his occasional mental lapse with her own recollections of past passengers- and the horror he felt only grew.

"_Mike_?" he yelled, staring at the former UNIT captain in ever-increasing horror; he might have had a few more lines and greyer hair then when he'd last seen the man, but it was definitely Mike Yates.

"Yep; good ol' Captain Michael Yates is back in the saddle and as dedicated as ever," the Master said, smiling casually at the Doctor's stunned expression. "Of course, he needed a _slight _push to stop him from consciously _registering _who we are, of course- almost thirty years since we last met and he _still _doesn't like me-, but hey; his UNIT contacts helped me whip up _this_…"

The Doctor was barely even listening to the Master as he kept talking- something about Lazarus's experiments, he vaguely registered with the part of him that was paying attention-; all he could bring himself to focus on was the sight of Mike Yates, standing close to Rose Saxon, both of them now allied to the man who'd once tried to destroy their entire _planet _just to give himself five more lives…

He'd known that Mike would always take time to get over his issues after that 'Operation Golden Age' mess- the fact that he'd been able to so convincingly fit in with 'Black Star' during that mess with Mortimus and the Vardans was never exactly encouraging-, but he'd always thought that Mike had remained moral enough whatever happened; even during the Golden Age crisis he'd never actually been working to _kill _anyone (Erasing people from history might still be wrong, but it wasn't hard to see how some people could rationalise it away as not _actually _being murder)…

But how could _Rose _have reached _this _point; the woman who had gone so quickly from being disturbed at the Ood's appearance to being outraged at their status as slaves, _marrying _a man who'd once tried to blackmail the _universe_-?

"ARGH!" the Doctor screamed, his thoughts cut off as something seemed to strike his body- he vaguely registered the Master standing before him holding some kind of rod-, sending him into violent spasms as sudden, indescribable pain tore through his system, sending what seemed like every cell into violent spasms as they were torn apart-

_No_… the Doctor realised, with the small part of his mind that wasn't focused on trying to fight off the pain that now dominated his system. _Not torn apart… _divided…

He acknowledged that he probably wouldn't have recognised this for what it was if he hadn't experienced this before- back when the 'Regeneration Generator' on Argolis had added five hundred years onto his life in his fourth incarnation- but all of a sudden, he knew what was happening; the Master was _aging _him…

Almost as soon as he had recognised that, the beam stopped, leaving the Doctor bent low against the ground, gasping for breath with lungs that suddenly felt as though he'd been breathing smoke for the last several hours, bones that felt like they would break in a strong wind, and skin that suddenly felt drier than it had since… well, _ever_…

God, judging by the cool breeze against the skin on the top of his head, he'd even gone _bald_; he'd _never _been bald before (His last incarnation's short hair had been the closest he'd ever come, and looking back he didn't think he'd liked it that much)…

"Doctor?" a voice said from off to the side, breaking his train of thought as he felt a pair of soft, comforting hands touched his shoulders, tenderly helping him regain his balance…

_Martha_.

Even in this moment, with Jack 'immobilised'- he could just vaguely see Jack fall to the ground after being struck by a beam from the Master's weapon- and himself rendered essentially useless- he'd grown too old too quickly; unlike in his first incarnation he hadn't had the time to 'grow into' his current age-, Martha could still find the time and courage to try and help them…

"Aww," the Master said, smirking at the two of them, prompting the Doctor and Martha to look up at the other Time Lord, "she's a _would-be_ doctor."

It seemed that the Master's opinion of his companions hadn't improved; he'd never thought much of Adric even after using the young Alzarian's mathematical skills to create Castrovalva, and if a skill like that wouldn't impress the Master it had become clear to the Doctor long ago that nothing would.

_Which might just make all the difference_… the Doctor mused, already turning a part of his mind towards a possible solution; it was as though, with his physical capabilities reduced once again, the sharp mind that had served him so well in his first incarnation was being given a chance to shine in a manner that it hadn't since those long-ago days when he'd relied on his brain more than anything else…

"But tonight, _Martha Jones_," the Master continued, grinning mockingly as he pocketed that 'rod' of his- some kind of 'screwdriver', the Doctor had little doubt, given this incarnation's already-disturbing 'similarities' to his own current self; he supposed he should just be grateful the Master hadn't managed to duplicate his old TCE-, indicating the main door behind them, "we've flown 'em in, _all the way from prison_!"

Glancing back as Martha stood up, the Doctor could only clench his fists in frustration- he could barely summon the energy to _stand_, never mind anything else- as he saw Martha's parents and sister hauled in through the door, Martha's mother sobbing as she looked at her daughter (A small part of him- the part with the Northern accent, he noted; that incarnation had _definitely _had some anger issues- was relieved to see a mother at _last _actively regretting her treatment of him, but the rest of him pushed that aside; this was _not _the time for that kind of thing).

"The Toclafane…" he wheezed, glaring up at his old friend as Martha crouched down beside him once again, holding him steady as he shook from age (She'd make an exceptional doctor once she completed her exams, really; she was _brilliant _when it came to people…). "What _are_ they?"

The Master didn't even bother to reply; he just sat down on the stairs opposite him and waved a finger at his ear, as though he hadn't heard what the Doctor had said.

"_Who are they_?" the Doctor repeated, wishing he sounded as strongly as he felt about this; his mind might be operating at a sharpened rate but his body was _really _letting him down…

"Doctor," the Master replied, looking at him with a concerned gaze that was so hypocritical it was almost pathetic, "if I told you the truth…"

He placed a hand in the middle of the Doctor's chest, just able to feel the beat of both hearts as he finished, "…your hearts would break."

For a brief moment, a possible explanation struck the Doctor, but he shook that off; drawing Rose back to this reality was one thing, but even with the Cyber-technology available over there, no matter how hypnotic a presence he could be, how could the Master have convinced an entire Earth to become _that_…?

"Not that they probably haven't already, of course," the Master chuckled, leaning in slightly as he indicated where Rose stood alongside Jack's body, her gun aimed at Jack's head as he weakly gasped for air. "I mean, you had such faith in her 'goodness', and the moment she sees you again she goes and does _that _right in front of you _without _knowing the freak can get back up…"

The Doctor simply glared silently back at the Master, but he didn't bother to reply; all he knew for certain about Rose's mental state right now was that she'd shot Jack, but that wasn't enough to start passing judgement about what had happened to her…

"_Is it time_?" one of the Toclafane suddenly said from above the Master, drawing their attention back to the matter at hand (A part of the Doctor couldn't help but be grateful for that; he wasn't certain he was quite… _ready_… to look at that particular… issue… in greater depth at the moment).

"_Is the machine singing_?" another one asked, prompting the Master to glance at his wrist as though consulting a watch.

"Two minutes past…" he said, a slight smile on his face before he ran back up to the top of the stairs, leaning against the railings as he looked over at the camera.

"So, _Earthlings_," he said, practically spitting the word out as he smirked at his audience. "Here it is; the end of the world."

With that, he raised the hand holding his 'screwdriver'- the Doctor wished he'd been paying attention when he'd named the thing- above his head, as though calling something down upon the world. "_Here. Come. The DRUMS_!"

No sooner had the words passed the Master's lips, a song- the Doctor vaguely recognised it as _Voodoo Child_, but he couldn't be certain; his knowledge of this century's music was rather erratic- started to play, the roar in his ears almost matching the roar in his head from other senses. The sensation of reality being fundamentally twisted on some level he couldn't quite identify was enough to play havoc with his time senses on its own, but when combined with the psychic scream of pain in his head as the TARDIS was forced to _create _that tear in the first place…

Already reeling from his sudden aging, the Doctor almost missed the Master running to look out a nearby window on his level before running back to the main control deck, beckoning Rose to join him- the smile on her face as she obeyed his 'request' hurt almost as much as the pain he felt at the Master's abuse of the TARDIS, but he pushed both aside; he had to _know _what had driven Rose to become… _this_… before he started judging her- as he stood at the window, looking out at the spheres flying around the _Valiant_.

"Down you go, kids!" the Master smiled, waving one arm as the spheres began to descend towards Earth, Rose standing beside him with an almost amused appearance about her body language as she witnessed the sight before them. The Doctor vaguely heard the Master make some comment about there being 'six billion' spheres (Which at least ruled out 'Pete's World' as the source of the spheres; from what Pete had told him during his last visit, the loss of the people who'd been converted into Cybermen had resulted in a significant impact on their population, reducing their numbers to at least four-fifths of that number), but otherwise he couldn't hear what his old foe was talking about; his sudden aging had _not _done his hearing any favours…

If the Master could use the telepathic field generated by the Archangel Network to keep the human race 'complacent' enough for him to get _this _far…

"Remove one tenth of the population!" the Master yelled, prompting the Doctor to briefly look up in horror at that last order; even after all the times he'd _saved _the planet, the memory of the time he'd had to condemn one-tenth of its population to death to stop that 'Agent Yellow' continued to haunt him, constantly leaving him wishing he could have acted in time to save Liz and all those others…

God, if the Master hadn't chosen to take out that number to rub old losses in his face- most likely finding reference to it in the TARDIS databanks-, the Doctor would be _very _surprised…

_No_.

He couldn't allow himself to get distracted by the past- both the direct and indirect reminders of it-, no matter _how _much the memories hurt; he _had _to focus on this last desperate 'plan'- for lack of a better term- he'd just come up with, or there was _no _possibility for stopping this mess.

For the moment, nobody was looking at him, and both Rose and the Master- a sentence he _never _thought he'd think, and it wasn't just because the second person was meant to be dead- seemed to have dismissed Martha as any possible threat; if he was ever going to take a chance, now, with Rose and the Master distracted by the Toclafane's descent, was possibly the only time he could do so.

"Martha…" he whispered, leaning over to speak quietly in her ear, praying with both his hearts that this was the right step to take, "we don't have much time, and you have to listen to me; _I have a plan_…"

* * *

As Rose stood alongside the Master, she couldn't help but smile slightly at the sight of the Toclafane descending from the rift created by the TARDIS- she might be as stubborn as her owner, but the TARDIS would understand once she was no longer the last of _her _kind in the new Time Lord empire-; it was almost…

_Beautiful_, really.

Humanity's lost children, separated from their own world by centuries of time and countless light-years of distance, coming back to the world that had been lost in a blaze of fire, the world whose destruction she had been forced to simply witness as it died in a blaze of fire…

_No more_, she vowed, clenching her fists in resolution.

If she could help it, that timeline would _never _come to pass now; her people would _not_ follow the Time Lords to extinction…

It was painfully hard for her to ignore the pleas for help over the radio with that vow in mind, of course, but Rose's time with the Master, if it had taught her anything, was that sometimes you had to sacrifice a few in favour of the big picture.

Thanks to the Master, she had come to recognise that; all she needed now was to pass on her new understanding to the Doctor, and all would be well with the universe.

The deaths occurring now were… regrettable, of course… but it was necessary in order to change the future that the Toclafane had come from…

The faint sound of someone crying behind them prompted Rose to glance behind herself curiously, her eyes falling on the dark-skinned form of Martha Jones just in time to see her 'replacement'- a ridiculous overstatement of the woman's importance, but she couldn't think of a better one- vanish in a brief burst of blue light, prompting Rose to allow herself a relieved smile.

_At last_…

She knew that the Doctor had been faithful to her, of course- the Master had shown her that much from the TARDIS databanks; he'd never shown the _slightest _interest in Martha as anything other than someone else to show around the universe-, but that didn't mean she'd wanted the other woman there for long.

She'd only shot Jack because she wanted to be sure that she didn't have any 'competition' for the Doctor's attention- she'd have to find something better to do with him now that it seemed getting shot wouldn't kill him-; she'd left Martha alive just so that she could give the woman a chance to see that she was no longer needed in the Doctor's life, but evidently the woman had recognised that on her own.

"Nice one," she said, walking over to crouch down beside the weakened Doctor- she hated seeing him like this, but the Master had assured her it could be reversed; this was just the most straightforward way to keep him immobilised long-term without causing potential long-term damage-, smiling at him. "She would have just gotten in the way; now that she's gone-"

The cold glare she received from the Doctor- a glare that so resembled his expression back when he'd worn a different face and she was looking around her parents' old flat- stopped her in her tracks, briefly taken aback at the coldness of it.

"Doctor?" she said, looking at him in confusion. "What's wrong? I'm back; everything's going to be all right-"

"All… right?" the Doctor repeated, wheezing slightly as he glared at her. "Rose… you _can't_… _believe _that… after what… you _did_…"

Rose could only sigh in response to that as she stood back up, looking pityingly down at him.

"I just realised the truth, Doctor," she said, looking sorrowfully down at him, wishing briefly that he wasn't so stubborn before reminding herself that he wouldn't be the man she loved- she would always be grateful to the Master for opening her eyes, but the Doctor would _always _be the one for her- if he hadn't possessed that same determination. "Can't you do the same…?"

"_Never_," the Doctor growled up at her. "This is… horrific… _evil_"

"Gotta second that… _Rose_," Jack practically spat from where he lay on the ground behind her, evidently still weak from that blast from the laser screwdriver (She had to admit, that really did look far better than the sonic one; at least you always _knew _when the laser screwdriver was doing something). "Your 'husband'… is a raving nutcase…"

Rose just shook her head pityingly as she looked over at her former companion, wishing briefly that she _had _managed to kill him earlier; it would make everything so much easier if she just had the Doctor to convince…

"You'll see," she said simply, directing the statement to both the Doctor and the ex-Time Agent lying before her.

They'd both see the rightness of the Master's plan in the end…

_They have to_.

* * *

AN: OK, for those readers with less experience of the Classic Series, Mike Yates was a member of UNIT during the Third Doctor's era- a period when the Doctor was exiled to Earth by the Time Lords for interfering in the affairs of the universe-, working with the Doctor against the Master and various other alien threats, only to be convinced to work with 'Operation Golden Age', a group of government officials and scientists who attempted to 'save' Earth by turning back time and wiping out all but a select few members of humanity, thus allowing Earth to start over without the damage mankind had caused the environment. After the group had been defeated, Mike was allowed to resign quietly, later warning the Doctor about the coming of the giant spiders of Metebelis Three- the race who would cause the Third Doctor's regeneration- and achieving some redemption, thus making his return here all the more shocking; he might have been hypnotised so that he doesn't consciously register who the Doctor or the Master are, but that means he still agrees with what the Master's _trying _to accomplish…

AN 2: As an 'added bonus', the incident with Agent Yellow the Doctor thought about here refers to the Seventh Doctor New Adventure "Eternity Weeps", where a virulent agent known as 'Agent Yellow'- intended to terraform Earth for a species that no longer existed- was unleashed by accident, forcing the Doctor to sterilise the infected areas with artificial singularities that killed millions in the Middle East while preventing Agent Yellow from destroying Earth

AN 3: OK, for the next few chapters we'll operate on a similar principle to what we had for the first few ones, alternating between brief scenes of Martha during her travels- including a few meetings with past companions- and looking at life on the _Valiant _as the Doctor learns more about what Rose has become…


	11. Meeting Miss Smith

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: These events take place _immediately _after Martha teleported off the _Valiant_

Broken Faith

Staring up as the sky above her filled with Toclafane, the weight of the key around her neck a reminder that only the luck of meeting a specific man (_The most incredible man she'd ever met_) protected her from the nightmare that was even now sweeping out across the world before, Martha could only make a silent resolution to the man responsible for this latest nightmare.

"I'm coming back," she vowed coldly staring resolutely up at the sky above her.

Even if she couldn't see the _Valiant_ from her current position, she knew that the Master was out there, and she was _going _to make sure he paid for what he had done to Earth…

And as for what he'd done to the Doctor…

She wasn't sure what would be worse for the Doctor, really; being aged like that, or having to see Rose siding with someone capable of what the Master had done.

(The part of her that couldn't help but feel jealous of the woman whom she had so recently met also wondered what the Doctor could have ever seen in someone like that, but she put it aside; not only was it not helping her right now, but she couldn't be sure what the Master had done to Rose to get her to that point in the first place, and it was hardly fair to blame someone for being brainwashed.)

Putting thoughts of Rose and the Master aside for the moment, she began to run towards the address the Doctor had given her; if she was going to do what he'd asked her to do, she was going to need the contacts the Doctor had told her this person could provide her with…

* * *

Finally, after almost an hour of walking, occasionally pausing to try and examine anyone she found injured in the streets to see what she could do- her resources might have been limited, but she could still at least get the injured into a more comfortable position and maybe tell people what to do to treat them in greater depth; so long as she made her communication with others brief she doubted she'd run the risk of attracting the attention of the Toclafane-, Martha finally found herself standing in front of 13 Bannerman Road, looking up at the large red-brick house while trying to restrain the tension she felt in her stomach.

If this woman couldn't help her…

Martha shook that thought off; if she couldn't find help here, she'd move on to find it somewhere else. This woman might make her efforts easier, but it still wouldn't be impossible to get anywhere if she had to do it on her own.

Stepping forward, making sure the key was in place- the Doctor had assured her and Jack that the perception filter he'd seen wouldn't prevent them being seen if they deliberately attracted attention to themselves, otherwise Martha might have taken the risk of removing it despite the fear of the Toclafane-, Martha knocked sharply on the door before her, subsequently waiting for a few moments before the door opened slightly, revealing a young girl with dark hair and slightly tanned skin, along with eyes that looked like she'd seen too much even _before _the Toclafane desecended.

"Hello," Martha said, smiling uncertainly at the young girl before her. "I'm Martha Jones; I'm looking for… Sarah Jane Smith?"

Almost automatically the girl moved to close the door, Martha just managing to intercept it by placing her foot between the door and the frame to stop it closing all the way as she looked at the girl.

"I'm here about the Doctor," she said simply, praying that the 'code' the Doctor had given her in those brief moments before her departure would be enough to satisfy the girl before her; her being in Sarah Jane Smith's house could mean that she knew about the woman's history or simply that she'd gone there after the Toclafane appeared because it was convenient. "He was wearing velvet when he met Sarah, and he wore a scarf when he left."

(She could only assume that it referred in some way to the Doctor's appearance when he'd last seen this woman; she couldn't imagine 'her' Doctor wearing _velvet_)

For a moment the girl on the other side of the door simply stared silently at Martha, clearly trying to decide what to do, before she sighed and opened the door again.

"Come on, then," she said, her voice low as she glanced around one last time before waving Martha into the flat. "Just… go easy on her; it's… well, it was bad."

For a moment as Martha entered the house she wondered what the young girl had meant by that last comment, but then her eyes fell on the form of an older woman- her weathered-looking face gave the impression that she was in her mid-fifties, even if her body looked like she was in exceptional shape- kneeling on the ground beside a small pile of ashes, and Martha's heart tightened at the sight.

She knew all too well what those ashes meant; someone close to this woman had been killed by the Toclafane assault.

"Sarah Jane?" the girl said, looking uncertainly at the woman before her, clearly uncomfortable about breaking into her… Martha dismissed 'mother' as an option easily, and 'aunt' was still a question-mark; 'friend' would probably be the best choice… friend's grief. "There's… someone to see you."

As the woman looked up, Martha's sorrow and sympathy for the woman before her only increased; her eyes were so red it looked as though she'd been crying for hours, even though Martha's watch told her that the Toclafane had only been unleashed upon the world a matter of minutes ago.

"Who… who _are_ you?" the older woman who could only be Sarah Jane Smith asked, looking tearfully at the young medical student, her voice sounding almost hoarse as she spoke.

"Martha Jones," Martha replied, holding out a hand as she walked towards the clearly-shaken woman, wishing she could do more for her than offer some basic comfort. "The Doctor sent me."

It was as though that phrase was a trigger switch; as soon as the words had left Martha's lips, the woman before her instantly sat up, looking at Martha with a renewed sense of urgency about her.

"The Doctor?" Sarah Jane Smith repeated, a slightly eager smile on her face as she looked at Martha. "You… travel with him?"

"We've met everything and everyone from Shakespeare to the Zygons," Martha replied, nodding slightly at the other woman, grateful that she was getting straight to the point (The initial Toclafane assault appeared to have ended, but not even the children seemed interesting in kidding themselves into thinking that the spheres wouldn't come back; doubt was a luxury they couldn't afford right now).

"Zygons?" Sarah Jane repeated, looking at Martha with an amused smile. "Strange looking things, weren't they?"

"You met them?" Martha asked, unable to stop the slight twinge of jealousy she felt at that; even knowing that she could hardly expect the Doctor to never go back to _anywhere _he'd visited on some previous occasion, it didn't stop the regret she always felt when she was reminded that she was hardly unique…

"Oh, a long time ago; they were trying to destroy an energy conference with the Loch Ness Monster," Sarah replied, waving a hand dismissively as she smiled at the memory.

"Hold on; the _Loch Ness Monster_?" the girl who'd opened the door repeated, looking incredulously between Sarah and Martha. "It's _real_?"

"Oh, that's only part of a long story; I'll tell you when Clyde and Luke-" Sarah began, only for the smile that had come to her face at the mention of the Doctor to fall away as she looked down at the pile of ash at her feet, sorrow her dominant expression once again.

Martha didn't need to ask why; evidently the small pile at their feet had been one of the two people whom Sarah had just named, the older woman so caught up in her memories that she'd briefly forgotten that one of the people she was talking about wasn't here any more.

After a moment's awkward silence, Martha reached out a hand and placed it comfortingly on the other woman's shoulder.

"I'm… I'm sorry," she said at last, already aware of the inadequacy of her words but unable to offer anything else.

"Th… thank you," Sarah replied, her voice low as she looked back at Martha, before she seemed to collect herself and look resolutely at her guest. "So, what does the Doctor want? I assume it has something to do with 'Mr Saxon'?"

Martha was ashamed to admit that a part of her was relieved to hear the loathing in Sarah's voice; from what the Doctor had told her and Jack yesterday, the subliminal hypnosis the Master had used to get everyone to vote for him would most likely cease to have much effect even if the satellites remained in orbit after he'd shown his true colours- anyone still following him would mostly do it out of fear if anything-, but there had still been a part of her worried that the Doctor had been wrong…

"Yeah, you're right," she said, nodding in confirmation at Sarah. "But he's not Harold Saxon; he's the Master."

Sarah's eyes widened.

"The _Master_?" she repeated, looking at Martha with wide, horrified eyes.

"You know him?" Martha asked, looking curiously at the woman.

"You could say that; I ran into him on Gallifrey during this mess with four Doctors being stuck in the same place…" Sarah said, shaking her head as she turned her gaze towards the ceiling, as though wondering where the Master was.

Martha could only blink in shock.

"Hold on; _four _Doctors?" she repeated, looking incredulously at the older woman. "As in… there was more than _one _of him in the same place?"

She almost couldn't believe it; the Doctor was incredible and strange enough at the best of times by himself, but to imagine _four _of him in one place…

"It wasn't something he makes a habit of; he told me- one of him told me- that it only happens in the gravest emergencies," Sarah said, waving the issue aside as she looked resolutely at Martha. "Talking of that, where _is_ the Doctor?"

Martha swallowed.

_This _was the tricky part; how to convince a relative stranger to trust her on something _this _important…?

"He's… he's been captured," she said, looking solemnly at the Doctor's old friend, wishing she could take away the pain she saw on the woman's face at that news. "He managed to give me a plan we could use to save him and stop the Master, but… well, I'm going to need your help to do it."

For a moment, Sarah simply sat in silence as she looked at Martha, clearly lost in thought at the implications of what she'd just heard- not that Martha could blame her; the idea of the Doctor being held captive by someone like the Master was _not _something she liked to think about-, before she nodded resolutely.

"Well then," she said, her expression resolute as she looked at Martha, "let's get to work, shall we? What do you need?"

* * *

AN 2: No prizes for guessing whose ashes Sarah was crying over, I assume?


	12. The Doctor and Mrs Saxon

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: These events take place a couple of days after the initial Toclafane assault; I felt that the Doctor would _not _be in the mood to talk to anyone at that stage of the proceedings, so it would be best to give him time to cool off before Rose started trying to talk to him

AN 2: This chapter features significant reference to the Third Doctor adventure "The Time Monster" and its sequel "The Quantum Archangel" (Which featured the Sixth Doctor); most of the relevant plot details will be explained in the chapter, but I thought people would like to know where I got this info from originally

Broken Faith

As she walked into the control room of her husband's ship- it might be a marriage of convenience more than anything else, but until she could win the Doctor over the Master certainly wasn't that poor a substitute-, Rose allowed herself a slight smile as she saw the Doctor sitting slumped in a chair by the conference table, staring solemnly at his hands as he clenched and unclenched his fists, clearly trying to get used to his increased vulnerability in this new body.

Rose hadn't liked having to see him age like that, of course- _neither _of them were meant to grow old, they were supposed to remain young and free as they travelled forever through the vast universe that the TARDIS allowed them to access-, but she just had to remember that it was necessary in order for him to see what she had come to see, and that proved enough.

Right now, with the Master currently off attending to resource allocation- now that he'd established his authority it was time for him to begin coordinating his efforts on a more long-term basis-, and Jack and the Jones family being shown to their new positions- the Joneses were now serving as staff while Jack was… just being kept out of harm's way, really; there was nowhere else for him to actually _go _in this situation-, it was time for her to answer her beloved Time Lord's many questions.

That was just one of the many things she loved about him, really; even if he didn't understand what she was doing here, Rose knew that the Doctor would always be grateful for a chance to learn something new…

What she hadn't expected, as she sat down opposite him- she wanted to look at him right now more than anything else; she still needed some time to adjust to him being so… _old _now-, was for him to sit slightly up and glare at her with an intensity she had never seen him display when he possessed this face; she'd seen it once or twice in his previous body, but that had only been when he was facing the Slitheen or the Daleks…

"Doctor?" she said, after a few moments had passed while he just stared silently at her, finally accepting that he wasn't going to start the conversation. "Isn't there… something you want to say to me?"

"How…?" the Doctor began, his voice wheezing slightly from the old age of his current form, but otherwise the same as Rose remembered it.

"Did I get here?" she finished, smiling slightly at him; she had a feeling the Doctor wanted to know more, of course- his initial anger due to this lack of understanding was naturally something she was keen to correct-, but he could only understand the answers to his other questions if they got the answer to that first one out of the way immediately.

"That'll do… for a start…" the Doctor muttered, his eyes narrowing as he looked at her. "When I saw you… at Dålig Ulv Stranden… how long ago…?"

"Just over a year for me," Rose replied, smiling slightly at him; it really was rather sweet of him to wonder how long she'd been waiting for him, even if he was still… annoyed (He couldn't be _angry_; after all, he loved her) at her. "The Master managed to reach back with the TARDIS and pull me through the gap just before it closed- actually, he managed to do it just a couple of seconds after your projection shut down-"

"A few… _seconds_?" the Doctor repeated, looking at her with an expression that could almost have been horror if it wasn't for the fact that Rose knew the Doctor _couldn't _be horrified at the thought of her having to wait for so short a time before returning here. "But… but that's _impossible_…"

"No it's not," Rose said, shaking her head as she looked reassuring at the Doctor. "The Master explained it all to me; after he found records of our last conversation in the TARDIS databanks, he studied the sensor information from when you sent that message to find the… frequency, for lack of a better term that he could use… of the other universe, and from there, having programmed the TARDIS to tap into the remnants of that tear…"

She smiled slightly. "Well, from what he told me later, all he needed to do was jury-rig a few of the dematerialisation systems to transmit the energy used for moving the TARDIS into something he'd developed that could move _me_ through the tear; something about cracks in time-"

"TOMTIT…" the Doctor muttered, the light of inspiration filling his eyes.

"What?" Rose asked, looking at him in confusion, pushing aside the brief joy she felt at the sight of that familiar gleam that always appeared when the Doctor discovered something new.

"Transmission… Of Matter… Through… Interstitial… Time…" the Doctor wheezed, looking up at her with a forceful glare. "The Master helped develop it… to control a Chronovore- an evolved Reaper- back… in the seventies;… must have used it… to draw you through the rip… drew you through the gaps in time… to bring you back here…"

Rose's eyes widened.

"Hold on; you _knew _about that?" she asked, leaning forward slightly to better look him in the eyes as she tried to find evidence that her theory was wrong; he _couldn't _have known about that, or he would have _used _it already…

"Knew about it?" the Doctor repeated, looking back at Rose with his eyes narrowed. "I was there… when the Master… nearly destroyed _Earth_… by using TOMTIT… nearly drew the Chronovores-"

"You said you could have driven the Reapers back if you'd had the TARDIS; you could have-" Rose began.

"The _Reapers_… were basic animals; the _Chronovores_… are _sentient_… beings!" the Doctor hissed, his body giving the impression that he would be shouting if he had the physical strength to do so. "Angering them… attracting their attention… it would-"

"He used the Paradox Machine to divert the signal caused by him bringing me here to the future, in the year where you met him; there was _no _danger to Earth," Rose interjected, looking pointedly at him; as much as she loved him, she couldn't help but resent the fact that he'd never managed to recover her when the Master had done it in a matter of months. "From what he told me, it was perfectly simple-"

"'Perfectly simple'?" the Doctor repeated, looking at Rose as though she'd just told him the sky was green. "Paradox Machines… require the _heart_ of the TARDIS… he _mutilated _her to install it-!"

"So _what_?" Rose asked, standing up to glare at him. "You could have convinced that thing to cope with a bit of discomfort if you'd actually _tried_; did you even _think _about doing that?"

For a moment the two former companions could only stare in silence at each other, the Doctor's glare giving away nothing about how he felt about Rose's last comment, before Rose finally sighed sadly as she looked at him.

"We meant _everything _to each other, Doctor," she said at last, grateful that it had been so long since she'd first learned that the Doctor hadn't come for her himself. "You're telling me that you never _once _considered even _trying _to get me back that way?"

"I thought of _everything_, Rose…" the Doctor said, his voice practically a growl as he glared at the woman before him, "and _everything _I thought of… would have put _billions_ at risk…"

"If it had been the other way around, I would have done _everything _I could to get you back!" Rose yelled, her voice raising as she looked at him. "You were _everything _to me, Doctor; if I'd had even _half _of what you've got, I would have used _all _of it to try and figure out a way to get back to you!"

For a moment, the Doctor simply sat in silence, staring at the young woman before him, before he spoke once again.

"What happened to you, Rose?" he asked, his voice low as he shook his head sorrowfully. "You used to _care _about things…"

Rose sighed, bringing herself back under control as she looked at the man before her… the man she still loved, even if he sometimes found it hard to see and accept the way things were…

That was part of the Doctor's problem, really; even after she'd seen what he'd become after she'd left him- a man willing to kill _children_ to 'save the day'-, he was still trying to convince her that they could win by sticking to his moral code, rather than doing what was _necessary_.

"I _do _care, Doctor," she said, looking at him with a slightly regretful expression; she shouldn't have shouted at him like she did, she knew that he would have done what he could to try and get her back if he didn't feel obligated to always consider the wide-scale effects of his actions (Unlike the Master, who recognised that you had to break eggs to make omelettes on this scale). "But sometimes you _have_ to let some people die; you _understand_ that, the Master showed me that file about Agent Yellow-"

"It's _not_… the same!" the Doctor practically growled, his voice low in his throat as he looked at Rose resolutely. "I only killed _innocents_… when it was a direct choice… to kill some now… or let _everyone _die later! This… isn't… _necessary_…"

Rose sighed slightly.

She knew that it would take time for the Doctor to see things the way she saw them now; she just wasn't expecting him to be _this _prepared to resist being with her.

She'd seen the wisdom of the Master's words; why couldn't the Doctor…?

"You'll understand," she said simply, standing up from the table, a saddened look in her eyes as she stared at the Doctor. "You just need time to appreciate our view."

"_Never_," the Doctor vowed, his expression resolute.

Rose could only shake her head slightly, her heart warmed at this renewed proof that her strong, defiant Doctor was still in this old body even as she wished he could see sense.

Once he understood why she'd done this…

She allowed herself a slight smile as she walked out of the room, her mind filled with thoughts of her and the Doctor, reunited once again and leading the new Human/Time Lord Empire to glory across the universe once he understood why she had chosen the path she had taken…

As the Master had shown her, the old ways wouldn't work any more; only strength would succeed to restore the Time Lords now.

The Doctor would understand that in time.

* * *

As the Doctor watched Rose leave the room, their recent conversation flying through his mind as he tried to process what she had just said to him, he couldn't help but shudder slightly.

Even without her constantly praising the Master's philosophy, all that talk about how he should have risked the wrath of the Chronovores to bring her back…

Even if she didn't know the full scale of what the Chronovores were capable of- even if she'd assumed that he'd be able to deal with them like he would have been able to 'fend off' the Reapers if the TARDIS had been working-, hadn't his warnings about what might happen to the universes if he'd tried to bring her back through the rift taught her _anything _about how dangerous it would be to try and bring her home?

It was starting to sound disturbingly like, as far as Rose was concerned, _anything _that could have reunited the two of them would have been acceptable simply because it brought the two of them together, the wider risks be damned…

What about her life at the Torchwood of that world; did that time mean _nothing_ to her…?

The Doctor shook that thought off; wondering how Rose felt about her life in that world wouldn't help him now, and the only thing he _could _do was figure out what the Master had done to bring Rose to this point and work out how to get through to her from there.

TOMTIT's addition to the equation at least answered the question of how the Master had been able to bring the Toclafane through to this time in small numbers without activating the Paradox Machine. With TOMTIT's ability to move matter through time itself- admittedly by moving things through temporal 'molecules' rather than actual time travel-, when plugged into the TARDIS's power supply- particularly when it was still newly-refuelled from his visit to the Cardiff Rift-, after modifying the TARDIS to generate a paradox field to cope with the potential issues caused by his actions, it wouldn't be impossible to assume that TOMTIT could draw Rose through the tear he'd used to say goodbye. After that, drawing the Toclafane to Earth from… wherever they came from… would hardly be difficult; assuming they were in the same universe, the TARDIS could compensate for the range issue easily enough…

The issue of how the Master got the machinery working was a problem, of course- TOMTIT wasn't simply a matter of programming in a few key details and waiting; it required a certain creative ingenuity with the equations that the Master could never get his head around and that even the Doctor had trouble with sometimes-, but if meeting the likes of Edward Waterfield or John Finer had taught the Doctor anything, it was that humanity regularly displayed an uncanny knack for understanding time if given the chance to work on it a bit.

All the Master would need was someone with the right kind of mind, and he could have worked out the necessary equations to recover Rose any time he wanted (For a moment the Doctor contemplated what might have happened to Stuart Hyde- he could certainly have done the calculations _and _assembled TOMTIT practically from memory-, but shook that thought off; the Archangel network might have prevented him sensing the Master's presence, but the disappearance or death of Stuart Hyde- particularly after his 'regression' during that Quantum Archangel affair when the Master's trap made him thirty years younger- would have set off far too many red flags among the right areas for him to _not _notice, so Hyde was almost certainly alive, while the Master had simply taken the plans for TOMTIT from some old records or something).

_Why _he'd gone to that kind of effort to recover one lost companion was more of a question, but the Doctor had worked that part of the issue out after that comment the Master had made when he was trying to ask his old friend about the Toclafane and the Master had started discussing Rose instead.

"_You had such faith in her 'goodness', and the moment she sees you again she goes and does _that_ right in front of you _without_ knowing the freak can get back up_…"

The Master wanted to break his faith in his companions.

He wanted to convince the Doctor that he was wrong about the human race he had dedicated his lives to protecting by convincing him that they hadn't been worth it, and what better way to do that than by showing him that those human beings he valued most highly- those who he'd chosen to travel with him (Even if he'd not always welcomed their presence at first he'd always grown to like them in the end; even back in his first incarnation, he wouldn't have allowed Ian and Barbara to keep coming along with him if he hadn't _wanted _them to)- could fall far below his 'standards'…

The Doctor wasn't going to give his old enemy that satisfaction.

That was why he'd told Martha to go and find Sarah when she'd left the _Valiant_; to prove to the Master- even if he prayed his old foe would _never _learn what he'd told her to do- that he would _never _lose faith in his friends.

Rose had let him down- to say the least- by marrying the Master and agreeing to this insane plan of his, but she was just one of many-

The Doctor froze.

_One of many_…

Where had _that _thought come from?

After he'd spent so long thinking of her as… well, as _more _than just another companion (Even he wasn't entirely sure how that had started; his ninth self had just… _really _bonded with her when they'd met at the beginning of his last life, all those long years ago in that department store basement and he'd continued to feel close to her after his regeneration)…, now he was thinking of her as just one companion among the many he'd travelled with?

It wasn't that he didn't care about his companions a great deal, of course, but he'd always thought of Rose as… more…, and now here he was, thinking of her as…

The Doctor shook that thought off; he wasn't sure where that train of thought was going anyway, and now wasn't the time to start thinking about that in more detail anyway.

But still… even as he sat there, trying to gather the strength to stand for whenever the Master came back to shove him back in that pathetic 'tent' that was the closest thing he had to a room on this thing… even as he prepared himself for however long it would take Martha to get back here after carrying out the task he'd given her… the Doctor couldn't shake the thought that had just crossed his mind.

Looking back on his time with Rose now…

Even without thinking about his recent meeting with her, the memory of her loss didn't hurt as much as it had done at first… and, now that he thought about it, he'd been feeling that way for a while now.

He'd still missed her, of course he did, but it was in the same way that he missed Anji, Erimem or Harry; the way you missed a friend, but not the way you missed a _close_ friend, like a part of him would always miss Fitz, Evelyn or Sarah…

What had changed?

And more importantly, _why _had it changed?


	13. The Journey Begins

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: These events take place at approximately the same time as the last chapter, with Martha now waiting at the docks for the lift that Sarah Jane managed to arrange for her

Broken Faith

As Martha Jones sat at the docks, waiting for the woman whom Sarah Jane had managed to make contact with, her mind couldn't help but reflect on all that she had been asked to do.

She trusted that the Doctor wouldn't have asked her to go to these kind of lengths if he thought there was an easier way, but still… faced with the prospect of crossing the entire _planet_…

Martha would be lying if it wasn't at least slightly intimidating.

Right now, though, all she could do was get out of Britain as quickly as possible, before the Master started to turn his attention towards finding her. For the moment the Time Lord seemed to be more concerned with eliminating potential military resistance rather than explaining his motives or worrying about what she might be up to, given that he hadn't made any announcements since her departure, but the sooner she got out of Britain and into the rest of Europe- where she could operate on her own more effectively than she could here; walking like that would be tiring but she was fairly confident she could manage it-, the less likely it was that she'd be discovered.

In that regard, she was definitely grateful to Sarah for her offer of assistance; as soon as she'd explained as much of the Doctor's plan as she dared- Sarah recognising that Martha couldn't tell her everything in care the Master found out where she'd gone and tried to question her-, Sarah had instantly contacted a few other former companions of the Doctor and had managed to arrange transportation for Martha to get to Europe.

_Other companions_…

Martha still had trouble getting over the initial jealousy she felt at that particular bit of news; not only had the Doctor travelled with Rose and Sarah Jane- even if Sarah had apparently left him a long time ago and seemed to have no… interest… in the Doctor _that _way-, but there'd been _other _companions…

She knew that she was just being jealous for no reason- Sarah had stated herself that none of the Doctors she'd met had ever shown any signs of interest in her in… _that_ sense…, and most of the other companions Sarah had spoken to since she originally left him had made it clear that none of their Doctors had either been interested in them or attracted their interest in the same way Martha had-, but that was life; sometimes you couldn't control how you felt.

Martha supposed it was just her luck, really; she got the chance of a lifetime, and then she had to go and make it more complicated by travelling with a Doctor who wasn't interested in _her_ even if he _was_… capable… of that kind of thing.

In some ways, she wasn't sure if it was worse than what Sarah had implied about her old relationship with the Doctor; at least she had hope that her Doctor- she couldn't help thinking of him as 'her' Doctor, even if she knew Rose had travelled with him first- could come to care for her in… _that_ way, while Sarah had apparently never had any sign that the Doctor she'd known could do the same for her…

"Martha Jones?" a voice said.

Turning around, Martha smiled slightly at the sight of an old woman standing behind her, wearing a simple loose dress that somehow managed to look slightly stylish for her age, with light grey hair and a broad smile.

"Yeah, that's me," she said, standing up and holding out a hand to the woman, pushing all thoughts of her feelings for the Doctor off to one side; she could worry about that _after _the Master was defeated (There was no question of 'if'; the Doctor had trusted her to do this, and she _would _do it). "And you'd be… Polly Jackson, right?"

"Correct," Mrs Jackson smiled, a slightly wistful expression crossing her face before she shook it off. "Anyway, we'd best get going; dear Ben's old friends might still be willing to help me out, but with things… the way they are now… I'd rather not push my luck by keeping them waiting too long."

"Ben's your… husband, right?" Martha asked, looking curiously at the older woman.

"He was only that for the last few years before his death- he died of a heart attack a few months ago-, but we travelled with our… mutual friend… back in our twenties; we just… went our separate ways for a while afterwards before we realised what idiots we were being," Mrs Jackson said, smiling slightly at the younger woman as they walked. "Oh, the things we saw back then… we even went to Atlantis, did you know?"

"Atlantis?" Martha repeated, her eyes widening incredulously. "_Really_?"

"Well, it was mostly abandoned by that point, but yes, we visited the city's remains at some point in the future; the Doctor had to stop some mad scientist from perfecting a means of raising Atlantis to the surface that would have destroyed the planet," Mrs Jackson explained, smiling slightly at Martha's incredulity before her expression became more solemn. "Of course, it wasn't all fun and games, of course; thinking of those 'Ten-Strong' still gives me nightmares…"

"Ten-Strong?" Martha repeated.

"Ten alien terrorists from the Schirr race in the far future; they'd perfected the old magic rituals from their apparently former allies the Morphieans to use against Earth's empire after the annexation of their homeworld," Mrs Jackson explained, shaking her head at the memory. "They nearly mutated all of us into new bodies for themselves before the Doctor disrupted their ritual…"

"Yeah, he does that a lot; on my first trip with him he stopped a bunch of witch-like aliens using William Shakespeare to prepare a ritual that would bring more of their lot through to Earth," Martha put in, grateful to make a contribution of her own.

Mrs Jackson blinked.

"Shakespeare?" she repeated, looking at Martha with a slightly stunned grin. "You met _Shakespeare_?"

"Yeah, I did," Martha replied, looking at Mrs Jackson with a sudden curiosity. "Didn't you meet anyone like that?"

"Well, we visited the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden and rescued a Jacobite from the English once, and another time we had a bit of a close call when Olivier Cromwell's son discovered that we were from the future, but that was it," Mrs Jackson said, a wistful smile on her face as she looked reflectively out at the sea before her. "Of course, after he regenerated nothing was ever quite as remarkable…"

"Regenerated?" Martha repeated, her already-keen interest given new life at this latest comment. "You mean… you _saw _the Doctor regenerate?"

"Oh yes; we'd just stopped the Cybermen from destroying Earth to save their planet, and then Ben and I got back to the TARDIS just in time to see the old man we'd know for the last few weeks or so fall to the ground and become a shorter man with dark hair," Mrs Jackson explained, once again smiling wistfully at the memory. "It was a _bit_ of a shock, I can tell you; Ben wasn't even sure it was still _him_ at first…"

As though only just remembering that she had someone else, she looked over at Martha. "Have you seen him regenerate too?"

"No, I haven't; he just… mentioned it," Martha said. She briefly thought about mentioning _why _the Doctor had told her about regeneration, but swiftly decided against it. With time being the way it was, the sooner she got moving on this ship the better, and right now she just didn't feel up to telling Mrs Jackson everything the Doctor had told her about the Time War and 'Harold Saxon's' true identity; what Sarah Jane had told her about some of the Doctor's past companions, Martha felt fairly safe in assuming that Mrs Jackson had known the Doctor before the Time War, and didn't feel up to explaining everything the Doctor had told her about that particular conflict at this time. "What was it like… _seeing _it?"

"Oh, as confusing as anything, really; he went from being an authoritative old man who always insisted on appearing strong to being a younger man with a habit for using the occasional disguise and a fondness for the recorder," Mrs Jackson replied, smiling briefly at the memory as she looked out at the ocean before her, evidently lost in thought even as she continued walking. "He was still the Doctor, but he just seemed more… relaxed now, really; more willing to sink into the background and have fun when there wasn't some immediate problem, rather than his old habit of trying to automatically take charge even when there was another official authority figure around…"

"Yeah, my one's a bit like that too; he goes to all the effort to go and investigate a party where some major scientific breakthrough's taking place, and then spent half the time before we learned what the organiser was up to enjoying the nibbles," Martha said, smiling slightly at the memory of the Doctor sampling the treats at Lazarus's party prior to the rejuvenation experiment, barely even registering to herself until after she'd thought it that she referred to the Doctor she knew as 'her one' to someone else…

"Here we are," Mrs Jackson said, breaking Martha's train of thought as she indicated a decently-sized yacht located at the side of the pier they were currently walking on, a small crew of five or six gathered around it. "It's not much, but from what Miss Smith told me you'd probably prefer stealth over size if you're going to get out of here without Mr Saxon noticing."

"And you're sure it's safe?" Martha asked.

"Its owner was an old friend of Ben's from long before he even knew me; trust me, he's not affiliated with Mr Saxon in _any _way…" Mrs Jackson assured her, the faint hardening of her face as she spoke the name of the Master's human alias the only sign of the hatred she must feel for the man who had just decimated humanity, before she shook her head and smiled slightly at Martha. "Anyway, you'd best be off; if the Doctor wants you to do something in this situation, it's probably best you do it as promptly as possible."

"He never was one for relaxing when the world needed saving, was he?" Martha said, smiling slightly at the memory before she held out her hand to shake Mrs Jackson's. "Thanks for your help; I… well, anything I say's a bit of an understatement in this situation, but-"

"I understand," Mrs Jackson said, nodding at Martha with a sympathetic smile as she shook the young medical student's hand. "Give the Doctor my regards when you see him again, will you?"

"Sure thing," Martha replied, before she turned around and began to climb down the nearby ladder leading to the boat, leaving Mrs Jackson to turn around and walk back towards the end of the pier.

_Here we go_…

* * *

As much as Martha would have liked to say she bonded with the crew of the yacht during her trip, she actually didn't have much opportunity; she got the clear impression that it was only because of her apparent 'friendship' with Mrs Jackson- and, by extension, the connection to the deceased Admiral Jackson- that these people were even bothering to transport her in the first place (Not that Martha could blame them for their attitude; after what the Master had done she'd be reluctant to do anything to take her away from her family either). She managed to strike up the occasional conversation with them during the trip, but it was always only brief discussions about the boat they were on or some of their past meetings with Admiral Jackson, and most of those conversations were naturally limited as Martha wanted to avoid revealing that she'd never actually met the admiral herself.

In some ways, she was almost relieved when they finally made it to Calais and she was able to get off the boat and leave them to their own devices; as enjoyable as the trip might have been under other circumstances, she was grateful to be able to get on with the task the Doctor had given her.

Noting an announcement about a town meeting for that night- most likely to discuss what to do about recent events; Martha had been listening to the radio as much as she could during the trip and she _still_ hadn't heard anything about 'Mr Saxon' making any announcements regarding his intentions-, Martha was relieved to see that she didn't have to worry too much about getting started; the meeting should make as good a location as any to begin telling the story that the Doctor had asked her to narrate to the rest of the world.

For a moment, as Martha approached the main town hall of Calais, she allowed herself a brief moment to wonder how the Doctor was doing and hope that he continued to survive- his entire plan essentially depended on his belief that the Master _wouldn't _kill him for reasons he hadn't had time to explain-, but she pushed those concerns aside; with no other plan available, this was going to have to do.

Steeling her nerves for what she was about to do, Martha stepped up to the doors of the town hall and opened them as quickly as she could, everyone in the hall turning to look at her as the doors slammed open on the walls around them.

_That's their attention won_, Martha reflected. _Let's just hope I can keep it…_

"Hello," she said- once again grateful for the TARDIS's ability to translate languages; she only knew the basics of French on her own merits, and she'd _definitely _have had trouble telling the story the Doctor wanted her to tell otherwise-, looking at the group of people before her, trying to appear calm and in control despite her current nerves- as well as recalling those occasions when the Doctor had been forced to address large crowds during their past travels, such as when they were confronting that group of hunters around that Skarasen corpse-; if this was going to work, she _had _to give the impression that she knew precisely what she was talking about, no matter how worried she might have been about the plan herself. "My name is Martha Jones, and I have something I need to tell you all…"

* * *

AN 2: To those unfamiliar with the classic series, Polly was the secretary of the computer scientist Professor Brett, who encountered the First Doctor in 1966 when the Doctor visited Professor Brett to examine WOTAN- Will Operating Thought ANalogue- a computer so advanced that it attempted to take over the world in the belief that it would be able to rule Earth better than humanity. Although Polly was briefly taken over by WOTAN, she was later freed from its control thanks to the actions of Able-Seaman Ben Jackson, a sailor she had recently befriended, the two of them subsequently entering the TARDIS just before the Doctor dematerialised. During their time in the TARDIS Ben and Polly were the first companions to witness a regeneration ("The Tenth Planet"), but later left the Second Doctor when the TARDIS coincidentally landed in London on the same day as they had originally left the city.


	14. The Fact of the Bad Wolf

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: These events take place around a couple of months after the last chapter; the only thing that you need to know at this point is that the Doctor has realised the truth about the Toclafane in the intervening time (I figured that the aftermath of that revelation would be more interesting to explore than the revelation itself, given that there weren't really that many possible 'candidates' for their true identity)

AN 2: Hope people like the Jack/Rose confrontation; this bit was NOT easy to write

Broken Faith

As Jack stood in the middle of the dead-end hallway of the _Valiant _that served as his 'cell'- the Master probably hadn't seen much point in wasting rooms on a 'freak' like him, particularly since physical discomfort wasn't much of a threat to him in the long term either-, he wished he could find something else to think about.

He might have a lot of memories to draw on- even before he'd become immortal, his life before encountered the Doctor had been far from quiet-, but there were only so many times you could relive even his many past sexual encounters before you ran out of material to distract yourself, particularly when he was being repeatedly tortured like this. So far he'd been shot with every kind of alien weapon he could think of- the Master had even somehow managed to get his hands on a molecular disintegrator and Jack had _still _managed to come back, his body automatically piecing itself back together as soon as the weapon's beam moved from whatever part of him it had initially made contact with-, electrocuted, stabbed, and even drowned; the Master had even contemplated decapitation before concluding that he didn't want to risk having the body _and _the head heal themselves (Jack had to admit that the thought of what the Master had suggested had never occurred to him; the possibilities it had suggested had managed to create a very pleasant fantasy for the next few hours)…

Then the Master had brought the Doctor to tell him the truth about the Toclafane, and Jack had known it wouldn't be good news without hearing the Doctor speak; even when the Doctor had seen what Rose had become (Although Jack freely admitted that he'd missed the Doctor's initial reaction due to his demise, the look of horror that had been there when he awoke was enough evidence), Jack didn't think he'd _ever _seen the Doctor look _that _shaken…

Then the Doctor had told him what he'd realised, and Jack had almost wanted to throw up.

_The Toclafane were the Utopians_…

Jack couldn't believe it at first; how could humanity have come so far only to fall _that _rapidly…?

He hadn't wanted to believe it.

Then, as the Doctor departed, Jack had seen the familiar resolution in his friend's eyes, and had realised something.

The Doctor didn't believe it either.

He might believe that the Master was telling the truth about the Toclafane's identity- reaching into that parallel world to draw Rose back here was one thing, but when the TARDIS was stuck travelling between only two points in history it would have limited the Master's ability to recruit allies on this scale-, but the Doctor would _never _believe that the human race would fall on this scale without outside incentive.

If the Master hadn't had _some _kind of part to play in whatever situation had driven the Utopians that far, Jack would be _very _surprised…

But even if it wasn't the Master's fault that the human race had resorted to whatever methods had led to them becoming the Toclafane, it didn't change one fact; humanity had _won_.

Even if they'd fallen at the last great hurdle, the fact that it taken the collapse of the _universe_ to drive them that far, even after all the alien invasions that tried to crush them beforehand…

Jack couldn't help but find that encouraging in its own way.

Humanity fought for its survival to the last, right up to the point where there was nothing for it to fight any more, and still continued to struggle for its own survival in a universe that had next to nothing to offer them…

The sound of a door opening broke him out of his thoughts; evidently his latest 'guest' was here.

He just hoped they weren't going to try and expose him to the Time Vortex as a means of killing him; he might have survived it, but that had _really _hurt when he'd been 'riding' the TARDIS into the future…

Looking up at the new arrival, Jack couldn't stop himself from gritting his teeth and glaring at the sight of something almost worse than a soldier with a new weapon; Rose Tyler, dressed in a smart suit that would have required her mother to save for a year to afford back in the days before either of them met the Doctor (Based both on what the Doctor and Rose had told him about her life back then and what he'd seen during his brief 'visits' to her growing up while he waited for a Doctor who coincided with his timeline) and a casual expression on her face that gave the impression she was attending a theatrical production rather than visiting an old friend who was being tortured by her husband.

"Hello, Jack," she said, smiling casually at him. "How are you?"

"Oh, you know, a bit sore from where your hubby's soldiers killed me last time, but other than that I'm fine," Jack replied, trying to appear equally nonchalant as he looked at her. "You?"

"All the better for being back," Rose replied, still smiling slightly at him. "It's good to see you, Jack."

"Yeah, so good you tried to shoot me in the _head _when you saw me again," Jack countered, trying his best to make his tone sound casual no matter how he felt personally about it; losing his temper wouldn't help him get answers right now.

"Yeah…" Rose said, actually having the nerve to look _uncomfortable _at Jack's last comment. "Look, if it helps, it wasn't anything personal-"

"Oh, so you shot me in the head for the _hell _of it?" Jack countered, glaring back at Rose.

"Look, I'm sorry, Jack," Rose began; Jack couldn't get how she could stand there and actually look sheepish at discussing her reasons for shooting him in the _head_. "I just… I wanted the Doctor to be focused on _me_-"

"And so you decided to kill off the _other _companions; well, thank you _very _much!" Jack spat, looking in ever-increasingly frustration at the woman he'd once held in almost as high esteem as the Doctor.

"It wasn't _like _that," Rose began, "I just didn't want him distracted while I told him what we were doing; I _knew _that he cared about _you_, Martha was just my replacement-"

"Hold on, you actually _believe_ that?" Jack cut in, frustration shifting to barely-controlled hatred as he stared at the once-compassionate woman before him- the woman who'd even been willing to give _him _a chance after he'd lied to her in their first meeting- who had become so arrogant. "Rose, Martha was _not _your replacement; she was her _own person_-"

"Check the TARDIS databanks, Jack; the Doctor spends a _lot _of time missing me when he's with her, considering what the Master told me about his usual relationship with companions," Rose said, smiling slightly back at him like the cat who'd got the cream. "He always said that I was different; the Master's stories just confirmed it."

Before Jack could respond to that comment- probably something about actually trying to look at the information for _herself _rather than relying on her 'husband's' second-hand information-, Rose looked at him with a suddenly inquiring gaze. "On a related topic, how _are _you… like that now?"

"What, immortal?" Jack asked, shrugging slightly even as he allowed himself an inner smile at the thought of telling Rose something she almost certainly wouldn't have a pre-'programmed' response to. "Actually, that's down to you."

Rose blinked.

"What?" she said in surprise.

"Yeah, the Doctor told me all about it; when you looked into the heart of the TARDIS and became imbued with the power of the Time Vortex to save him from the Daleks?" Jack asked, smiling slightly at the still-stunned expression on Rose's face; it was almost a relief to see her off-guard after her earlier 'the Master and I know everything and are always right' attitude, as he was coming to think of it. "Turns out that, at the same time that you were destroying the Daleks, you brought me back to life… which, by the way, you couldn't actually control; you not only brought me back, you brought me back _forever_."

Rose's eyes widened.

"Oh my God…" she said, her voice low as she stared at him, her eyes showing an appreciation and awe that Jack was almost sure he would have welcomed under other circumstances. "_I _did this…"

Her expression became more solemn as she looked back at his eyes. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" Jack repeated, wondering where she was going with this.

"To have had to live through all those years to get here…" Rose whispered, stepping forward slightly to gently touch his face (Jack almost wished he had to try harder _not _to flinch; there were times when his libido was almost a disadvantage as it prevented him for making his distaste for certain people clear) as she stared at him. "All that time… seeing all the ugliness of the last century… all the pain… all the suffering… and knowing that you couldn't dare to stop it because of the Doctor's rules…"

She sighed slightly as she stepped back to look at him. "You must have been ready to die…"

"Funny thing, that," Jack said, smirking slightly as he looked at her. "I _was _ready to die… until I saw Utopia."

Rose could only blink uncertainly at that.

"What… what do you mean?" she asked, looking in confusion at her former fellow companion. "How could that give you hope; the universe was _dying_…"

"And even then, with so little to gain, the last of the human race continued to struggle," Jack said, smirking slightly as he looked at her. "They kept on fighting to survive… inspired by a dream… and that is…"

He smiled warmly at the thought, the image of those valiant humans continuing on at the last minute. "_So _human…"

For a moment, as Rose stared silently back at him, Jack briefly allowed himself to hope that he'd managed to get through to her with that last comment…

Then she stepped back, shaking her head as she studied him, still looking at him with the same saddened expression she'd had when she initially learnt about his immortality.

"It doesn't make up for it," she said, shaking her head as she looked pointedly at Jack. "We can only prevail if we take _definite _action; I thought _you'd _understand, Jack."

"Understand what; that you turned all of the future humanity into a mutilated mess to murder their past and decided to defend it on the grounds that you were 'making a better future'?" Jack countered, glaring pointedly at the woman who'd once inspired him to risk his life- back when he was still actually _capable _of dying- against the Daleks themselves. "Rose, that kind of argument's been used by dictators and killers the world over, and it all comes down to the same thing; psychos trying to justify their own brutality in the vain hope that historians won't remember them as the 'bad guys'."

"The Utopians _failed _before the Master even got there, Jack-" Rose began.

"Firstly," Jack countered, glaring in frustration at the young woman before him (He'd known that Rose could be stubborn from past experience, but why did that stubbornness have to continue when she was evil?), "do you have any actually _evidence _that they fell apart on their own, or couldn't that whole situation have been set up by the Master before he ever 'rescued' you?"

Rose's uncertain silence was all that Jack needed to confirm his theory; she'd only seen the final results of the Utopians' fate, without ever actually seeing what happened when they managed to get there for the first time. For a moment Jack allowed himself to hope that he'd managed to get through to her, that Rose would see that she'd made the wrong choice by siding with the Master, that she'd turn around and try to help him and the Doctor once again…

Then Rose shook her head resolutely, her gaze still fixed on Jack as she came to her decision.

"It doesn't matter _how _their failure happened; all that matters is that they _did_," she said, staring resolutely up at Jack, clearly certain in what she was saying. "If we continue to do things the Doctor's way, all that will happen is that we'll end up in that situation again-"

"Yeah, we fall apart at the _end _of the _universe_; what a _terrible _fate to befall a species, huh?" Jack countered, glaring in frustration at Rose. "What a terrible future to avert; we survive until the end of the _universe_ itself, when everything else fell apart and _died_. Rose, surviving to the end of the universe isn't exactly something to be _ashamed_ of-!"

"We fell _apart _as a _species_-" Rose interjected.

"Facing circumstances that _no _other race managed to achieve; it's not exactly a failure from where _I'm _sitting!" Jack growled; what would it _take _to get through to this woman? "This is _not _the way, Rose-"

"You're wrong," Rose said simply, stepping back from Jack, her gaze cold as she stared at him, evidently considering their 'debate' over. "This is the _only _way things can improve."

With that, she turned around and walked out of the corridor, leaving Jack to stare silently after her, horrified and outraged at her stubborness.

He just couldn't understand it; how had Rose reached this point?

Had she been so desperate to be reunited with the Doctor that, when the Master had given her the chance, she'd been so grateful to him that she'd latched on to _everything _he'd told her out of some warped sense of 'gratitude'?

He'd heard of traumatic situations encouraging people to bond with others, resulting in some people latching on to people who would _never _be suitable for them as a means of making up for what they'd lost- such as cases of girls losing their fathers at a young age after a close relationship subsequently seeking relationships with older men while subconsciously searching for a 'substitute father'-, but could it really be taken to _this _extent…?

Further speculation on Rose's psychological state was cut off when the door opened once again, this time revealing two of the Master's soldiers, each carrying two half-sealed body-bags which they immediately threw to the ground beside him. Despite his long experience with death- living through two world wars and being capable of surviving events that would kill everyone else left you with some vivid memories-, Jack couldn't help but wince at the sight of the mutilated corpses in the bag, the bodies having clearly been mutilated by the Toclafane blades far more than was necessary to kill them.

It was the Master's trademark in this situation, really; as though the deranged Time Lord was trying to rub Jack's inability to die in his face, he'd taken to throwing the bodies of anyone he'd had executed recently in here with him, their bodies further twisted to make a point.

"Who're these ones?" he asked, looking up critically at the soldier before him (He was never clear how much the soldiers before him followed the Master out of loyalty, out of the influence of the Archangel network, or just out of plain fear, but he'd long ago stopped wondering which it was for each soldier; they _all _seemed to want to shoot him).

The man shrugged.

"Some girl called Victoria something-or-other- she was stirring up trouble around the east coast- and a chap called Thomas Brewster; got caught stealing medical supplies down in London," he said, clearly unconcerned about the bodies as he and the other soldier walked out, unaware that Jack's blood had already run cold at the first name.

_Victoria_…

He hadn't mentioned it to the Doctor when they'd met- there hadn't really been the time, and Martha had seemed annoyed enough at them discussing _Rose_, never mind the Doctor's _other _companions-, but he'd done some independent research- outside of Torchwood supervision, naturally; the last thing he wanted was for them to find _other _people they could use against the 'enemy of the empire'-, and managed to find some general information about other past companions of the Doctor… and the records listed a 'Victoria Waterfield' as having travelled with the Doctor- well, UNIT records identified the little man in the large clothing and the Beatles-style haircut as the Doctor; Jack had always been a bit uncertain about the idea of the Doctor he knew ever looking like _that_- when he was dealing with that Yeti business in the London Underground and that thing with the killer seaweed, later founding that 'New World University' thing before she married and practically disappeared from the public eye.

He didn't recognise the name 'Brewster', admittedly, but if that guy hadn't travelled with the Doctor himself at some point or another he'd be _very _surprised…

_That bastard_.

As if it wasn't enough for the Master to turn Rose into a psychopath, now the Master was killing the Doctor's _other _companions, and almost certainly making the Doctor _watch _as he killed them (Jack briefly wondered if Rose watched the deaths as well, but shook that thought off; that led to an area he did _not _want to examine too closely right now)?

Seeing the mutilated mess that looked like it had to be Victoria- the long silver hair was a bit of a give-away; he somehow doubted 'Thomas Brewster', whoever he was, would have such a feminine hairstyle-, Jack once again found himself praying that Martha would stay out of that bastard's reach; if that was what the guy did to the Doctor's _past _companions, how would he treat the more recent ones…?

* * *

AN 3: To those who want to know, Victoria Waterfield was a young woman from the Victorian era who travelled with the Second Doctor in the TV show after her father was killed by the Daleks, subsequently leaving him in the 1960s after growing tired of the violence in their travels; she was briefly used by the Great Intelligence- as related in the novel "Downtime"- as part of its latest plan to return to life, but she defeated it with the aid of the Brigadier and UNIT, and when last seen had married (Although her husband's name wasn't revealed), becoming a mother and soon to be a grandmother. Thomas Brewster was a Victorian thief who briefly stole the Fifth Doctor's TARDIS in the audio "The Haunting of Thomas Brewster", but eventually returned to the Doctor and travelled with him for a time before getting in 2008 after developing feelings for a woman he'd met there


	15. The Last of the First

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: This takes place at approximately the same kind of time frame as the last one, but the general date isn't important; all you need to know is that Martha's reached Russia by this point and is now telling her story to her latest audience

AN 2: Partial inspiration for this chapter came from the story "All the Maps Change" by namjai; interesting little read, to say the least

Broken Faith

"And… well, that's all I have to say," Martha said, looking at the people around her, making a note that she really needed to work on the conclusion of her story even as she looked at her current audience.

In some ways, the diversity of the groups she addressed these days could still surprise her; sometimes she simply spoke to the last few refugees in specific cities, while on other occasions she found herself going through the cities to tell her story to various groups of survivors, depending on how they'd divided themselves in the aftermath of the initial Toclafane attack. Some cities had degenerated into a more basic 'gang warfare' method of survival- mostly the smaller ones-, while the larger ones- those the Master had felt a greater interest in, she assumed- had generally kept operating the same way they had before, baring the fact that most companies and organisations not essential for keeping people alive now worked directly for the Master. Her current audience was a group of scientists at a former Russian military installation that were involved in the Master's weapon manufacturing plants- she'd been grateful to learn that nothing there would be ready for several months; at least she still had time before the Master was ready to try anything on a larger scale-, operating a couple of miles outside the Russian city she'd visited recently (She hadn't managed to catch its name

As her audience began to drift apart, Martha couldn't help but wish that she had a better idea of how they'd react to her news; in many ways, this whole 'plan' the Doctor had given her was based around nothing more than guesswork and simple faith in human nature…

She just wished she knew that she was making an _impact_; she knew that people were listening to her story, but were they actually taking on board the instruction she gave them?

Once she left, would they remember to say the word when the time came… or would they just forget about it because they didn't believe _anything _could save them? As much as Martha wanted to hope for the best in the end, with the Master increasingly establishing his hold on the planet and no real signs of _any _kind of weakness where the Toclafane were concerned, she couldn't exactly blame people if they dismissed her story as the simple rantings of a madwoman…

"Miss Jones?" a voice said from behind her.

Glancing back, Martha was surprised to see an old man- apparently in his late seventies or early eighties, judging by the lines and the receding hairline, but retaining a keen gaze that hinted at an exceptional intellect- standing behind her, looking at her with a slight smile.

"Yeah…" she said, nodding uncertainly as she looked at the man in question. "Who are you?"

"Professor Ian Chesterton," the man replied, stretching out a hand to shake hers. "Actually, I'm from England myself; I was called over to do some consultancy work before the election and ended up stuck out here when the Toclafane descended…"

"Consultancy work?" Martha repeated, unable to stop the slightly sceptical look that crossed her face as she spoke, prompting a small smile from the other man.

"Yes, I know I don't look it, but… well, let's just say that I learned long ago that it was best to keep in shape," he said, his voice displaying no signs of resentment at her implied thoughts about his age, before he indicated a nearby door. "May I talk with you in private for a moment?"

"Uh… sure," Martha said, wondering what this was going to be about even as she followed him into the room. In any other situation she might have considered this a bad idea- going into an enclosed space with a man you didn't know was almost _asking _for trouble even before the Master took over-, but even without Professor Chesterton's age, there was something about him that made Martha almost… _want _to trust him.

As she entered the room, Martha was surprised to note how bare it was. It seemed to consist solely of a desk, a computer- most likely obsolete; the Master had cut off Internet access practically everywhere as soon as possible to limit the potential for others to plan against him-, and a couple of chairs, along with a few filing cabinets, and no sign of any pictures or other personal items.

"The office they gave me when I initially came here," Professor Chesterton said, apparently guessing the question she was about to ask before she even voiced it. "As I said, I was only here for a bit of consultancy work originally- would have left for home in another day or so if the Toclafane hadn't shown up-, so I didn't feel much of a need to bring up anything to give the office the personal touch."

He sighed slightly. "Wish I had now, of course, but hindsight's twenty-twenty, after all…"

Despite the solemn expression on his face as he spoke, Martha couldn't help but smile slightly at Professor Chesterton's words; evidently even the destruction of the planet wasn't enough to completely eliminate this man's sense of humour.

"Firstly," Professor Chesterton said, as he sat down opposite her, "I would like to assure you that I not only believe your story, but that I will do all that I can to encourage others to tell it even after you've gone from here."

"Uh… thanks," Martha said, already confused; the news was encouraging, of course, but why would he need to tell her that in _private_…?

"Secondly," the old man continued, looking at her with a renewed grin, "I think I can safely say, after hearing your story, that we both have a friend in common."

Martha was about to ask what he meant by that, when an explanation struck her.

Could it be…?

It was a bit of a stretch from a casual comment like that, she had to admit, but the confident way in which he said it…

"You… you _travelled _with the Doctor?" she asked, looking back at the man in surprise; she knew that her eyes had gone wide from surprise, but she almost couldn't help it.

The idea that this man before her could have seen some of the things she'd seen…

"Oh yes; my wife and I- before we were married, of course; we only really fell in love over the course of our time together- met the Doctor back in 1963, and subsequently travelled with him for about two years," Professor Chesterton explained, smiling slightly at the memory as he spoke. "Back then she and I were only colleagues at Coal Hill School- I taught science and she history-, but we both worked together to investigate the mystery of Susan Foreman, a pupil of ours who sometimes displayed rather… unusual knowledge for… well, for that time, really. We followed her to her home to try and find answers, only to learn when we reached there that her 'home' was in a junkyard… and it was a police box that was larger inside than it was outside."

If anything was going to convince Martha of Professor Chesterton's honesty, that was it; she hadn't mentioned the TARDIS in her story this time (She varied the amount of detail she gave in the story to prevent herself becoming jaded from repeating the same words over and over).

He really _had _travelled with the Doctor…

"Once we'd entered the police box," Professor Chesterton continued, "we were confronted by Susan's grandfather, an old man with white hair in a Victorian suit, who called himself 'the Doctor', and, as soon as he registered we knew about his ship, he shut the doors and set it to take off."

Martha blinked.

The description of the Doctor as an old man wasn't that surprising- it certainly fit with what she'd already heard from Mrs Jackson about the Doctor she and her husband had originally travelled with; given that incarnation's implied physical age she had to wonder if that was the Doctor before he'd _ever _regenerated, given that what she knew of the Doctor's possible life span didn't suggest that it would be easy for him to live to old age once he started travelling-, but what Professor Chesterton had implied about the Doctor's connection to his companion at that time…

"Her _grandfather_?" she repeated, staring incredulously at the man before her. "The Doctor was a _grandfather_?"

"Oh yes; he cared a great deal about her, even if he didn't much care for _us_ at first," Professor Chesterton said, shaking his head wistfully at the memory. "Don't misunderstand me, travelling with him was an incredible experience, and he definitely mellowed from what he'd been over the course of our time with him- particularly once he was convinced to take a more active role in things-, but in the end, our only problem lay in us not actually having a _choice _in whether or not we wanted to travel with him…"

Martha briefly wondered what Professor Chesterton meant by them convincing the Doctor to take an 'active role', but decided not to bother actually asking the question; given what he'd implied about the attitude of the Doctor he'd travelled with- she couldn't imagine 'her' Doctor leaving simply because two people entered the TARDIS without his permission-, she could only guess that, back then, the Doctor had been less eager to make himself obvious (No matter how hard it was to imagine the Doctor _ever _being willing to 'blend in') when he visited new locations in his travels and would leave it at that.

In many ways, what the Doctor had been like _then _wasn't important to her; all she cared about was what he was _now_.

Right now, she was more interested in learning the answer to the most obvious question she wanted to ask.

"So… did you see anything particularly… strange in your time with him?" she asked, smiling slightly at the other man; after what she'd heard from Sarah Jane and Mr Jackson, she was curious to hear hat tale Professor Chesterton had to tell her.

"Well, we once landed on a planet where alien nanobots had allowed the inhabitants to acquire what appeared to be magic powers, forcing the Doctor into a duel with a local sorcerer; how's that for strange?" Professor Chesterton asked, looking slightly teasingly at the young medical student.

Despite the bleakness of the world they now found themselves in, Martha couldn't help but smile at the old man' unspoken challenge.

"That's nothing; on my first trip with him we had to stop a bunch of witch-like aliens from using Shakespeare to release their species from the dimensional prison they'd been stuck in centuries ago," she countered, enjoying the slightly stunned expression on Professor Chesterton's face before he smiled at her again.

"If it's history we're talking about, how about the fact that Guy Fawkes actually died the night before the Gunpowder Plot and was forcibly replaced by King James's homosexual lover after he was revealed to be part of a group of sorcerers trying to trigger anarchy?" the older man responded, the humorous expression on his face making the man before her look years younger.

"Oh, history trips are all right, but what about a _living_ sun?" Martha asked, a broad grin on her face at Professor Chesterton's expression.

"A living…" he began, before he shook his head and smiled back, his confidence regained. "Well, that's _hard _to beat, I'll admit, but how about this; we once visited a planet populated entirely by giant insects that was being manipulated by a vast intelligence known as the Animus?"

"Artificial landscape on a spaceship designed as a prison that was controlled by an other-dimensional entity that had accidentally allowed its dark side to manifest?" Martha countered.

"Uh… an entire city here the majority of the inhabitant were hypnotised by disembodied brains?" Professor Chesterton responded, apparently uncertain of hi ground now even if he was clearly enjoying their little 'competition'.

"Daleks in New York in the 1930s?" Martha retaliated; like her fellow companion, she was actually rather enjoying the 'back and forth' nature of their current 'competition', both for the slight amusement it brought them in this new dark world and for the chances it gave them to learn what else the Doctor had witnessed in his life.

"Met them on their home planet _and _defeated their invasion of Earth in the twenty-second century," Professor Chesterton replied, the smile still on his face at the memory.

Despite herself, Martha couldn't help but pause at that last comment.

"Really?" she asked, staring at the old man before her, trying to picture his younger self standing up to the Daleks in the situations he'd implied and wishing it didn't make her feel as… _hurt _as it did.

Even without the numbers that he must have faced taken into account- there was highly unlikely to be only four Daleks on their home planet, to say nothing of the numbers that they'd need to _conquer _Earth-, the fact that the man before her had faced the Daleks… the creatures so ruthless that they'd completely destroyed the Doctor's people…

Martha hated to admit it, but she'd always hoped, on some level, that the Daleks were something the Doctor didn't encounter often even _before _the Time War; the idea that he'd been facing them since the early days of his travels- to the extent that the man before her had met them _twice_- made it seem like, once again, she was just treading ground that so many others had walked before…

"But," Professor Chesterton said, breaking into her train of thought, smiling reassuringly at her as though he'd guessed something about where her thoughts were going, "even with that, I doubt Barbara or I could have ever had the courage to do what you're doing now."

Martha couldn't help but feel almost more embarrassed at that.

"Well, it's not like I had much of a _choice_…" she said, uncomfortable with the compliment she'd just received.

"On the contrary," Professor Chesterton said, reaching out to place a hand on her arm as he spoke, "if travelling with the Doctor taught me anything, it's that we always have a choice; what truly makes us is what we choose when the odds are against us… and, in the end, when faced with a nightmare like this, you have made a choice that I doubt Barbara or I would have had the courage or commitment to make if we had been travelling with him when this… situation… occurred."

_Commitment_…

Martha wished he hadn't phrased it like that; to her ears, it made things between her and the Doctor sound so much more… _personal_… than they really were.

No matter what she did… even after seeing what Rose was now…

Why would the Doctor ever see _her _as anything other than the woman who replaced the one he _really _loved when she wasn't able to be there?

No matter what Rose was _now_, after all the time he'd spent missing her, the Doctor would always love what she'd _been_ when she'd travelled with him; maybe he'd even already managed to convince her to side with him against the Master after spending time alone with her back on the _Valiant_…

She might not care about what the Doctor had _been_ to reach this stage, but that didn't mean that the memory of what _Rose _had been wouldn't drive the Doctor to try and bring back the person he'd loved so much back then…

"Anyway," Professor Chesterton said, breaking into her train of thought as he smiled at her- either he hadn't registered her discomfort at his last comment or he'd chosen to ignore it; unlike last time, Martha couldn't tell which option was the case, and didn't know which one she'd prefer the reason to be-, "what I wanted to tell you in the end is that, when the time comes for us to obey your instruction and say his name…"

The old man smiled at her. "Well, I'm sure that there will be more than one person chanting it with more enthusiasm than the average man on the street."

Martha could only lean over to hug the old man before her in gratitude for the story he'd just shared.

She could easily see how this man could have coped with the TARDIS back when the Doctor was starting his travels…

She just hoped she could live up to the faith everyone was beginning to have in her; first the Doctor had given her this task, then Sarah Jane and Mrs Jackson had risked so much to get her out of England, and now Professor Chesterton's words of advice…

And, even now, she couldn't help but feel like she'd taken on this task only because nobody else was available for it.

Had the Doctor given her this task because he _believed _in her… or because, in the end, she'd been the only person available to him in the time he had?

* * *

AN 3: Another Classic Who update; Ian Chesterton was one of the Doctor's first two human companions- the other being Barbara Wright-, who taught the Doctor's granddaughter Susan when the First Doctor and Susan spent some time on Earth in 1963. The two teachers wandered into the TARDIS while trying to find out the reason for some of Susan's strange knowledge- displaying advanced scientific knowledge while believing England used decimal currency in 1963- and unintentionally prompted the Doctor to take off to prevent them telling anyone about his ship, subsequently travelling with the Doctor for two years- due to the Doctor's inability to pilot the TARDIS preventing him from taking them home even after he grew to trust them-; they eventually returned home in a Dalek time machine in "The Chase" after the Daleks' attempts to capture and kill the TARDIS crew in the machine ended with their destruction. He later returned briefly in "The Face of the Enemy" where it was revealed that he and Barbara had married after their return, Barbara becoming a university lecturer while Ian went on to do various consultancy work for the RAF and NASA


	16. Reunion with Mel

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: Again, all you need to know about the date for this one is that it takes place another month or so after the previous chapter

Broken Faith

As the Doctor sat weakly in the conference room chair that the Master 'allowed' him to use- whenever he wanted the Doctor to be able to observe him without wanting to take him anywhere he shoved the Doctor into a chair in the conference room that gave him a clear view of the television screens-, he wasn't surprised when the Master entered the room, a woman dressed in prison-style grey clothing with a burlap bag over her head alongside him, the still-'hypnotised' Mike Yates behind him with a gun aimed at the prisoner's back.

"This… again?" the Doctor muttered, looking in frustration at the other Time Lord. "Haven't you learned… _anything_?"

He might not be able to identify who the Master had dragged in with him this time around- the simple clothing the Master had all his 'prisoners' wear in this situation made even identifying the _gender _difficult at times, never mind age-, but the formula was always the same for these meetings; the Master dragged in one of his past companions, the Doctor recognised them, they recognised him, and then the Master killed them in front of him, all the while asking the Doctor if what he'd shown them was worth what the Master was doing to them _now_.

It was almost pathetic, really, when the Doctor thought about it. In the past, his old friend had justified every action he carried out simply by the fact that he was the one doing it; this incarnation…

It was almost like this latest version of the Master wanted the Doctor's _permission _to do it, was the best reasoning the Doctor could come up with; maybe, without the Time Lords to try and prevent him taking action on this scale, all the Master really wanted now was the knowledge that the only other Time Lord left understood and accepted his reasoning for doing what he was doing…?

So far, if that was his goal, it hadn't worked out, of course. The memory of the Master turning the laser screwdriver on so many of his past companions continued to haunt him- Victoria's screams still resounded in both his hearts, to say nothing of the expression of pain and confusion on Thomas's face; he had barely travelled with the Doctor for more than a couple of weeks, there hadn't been any real _reason_ for the Master to target him-, but so far he had refused to give the Master the satisfaction of breaking down.

He regretted the deaths, but he had no choice but to bear the memory of them in silence; he had to keep reminding himself that all he could do was hope that his plan with Martha worked, thus saving all the people he'd seen die so far, and he could only accomplish _that _by taking control from the Master at the last minute.

If he gave the Master what he wanted and broke down, the chance that the Master would kill him increased (Even if this latest incarnation of his old friend was as unpredictable as he seemed so far, so far a few essential aspects of his previous incarnations had remained constant); by denying him what he was waiting for, the Doctor gave the Master all the more reason to keep him alive for the moment when he _would _break.

"Oh, trust me, this is _not _the same," the Master smiled, grinning casually at the Doctor as he stepped back to take a hold of the bag in his hand. "For one thing, I think it's time you caught up with your old friends before we moved on to _that _stage of things…"

With that, he yanked the bag off his 'guest's' head, revealing vivid red curled hair that the Doctor immediately recognised.

"Mel…" he whispered, his eyes widening in shock as he stared at his sixth and seventh incarnation's former companion, his mind automatically reminding him of the last time he'd seen her, after that whole mess with the Land of Fiction and that 'Dr Who' trying to 'punish' him and his associates for their 'crimes' without any appreciation for the wider issues behind what they'd done.

Even after they'd managed to stop Dr Who and seal off the Land of Fiction, Mel's last words to him as she departed for Earth with Ace would always hurt…

"_You're not the Doctor I knew. You're a liar and a user and quite possibly a murderer. I don't wish to know you any more_!"

He'd tried to cope with it by looking at how his other companions in that incarnation still believed in him- even Ace, after all he'd put her through, had assured him that she'd always trust him-, but the knowledge that Mel had called him a _murderer_…

It had almost been more painful than that time Ace had stabbed him in one heart; at least then he'd had the consolation of knowing that she was under the control of outside forces.

Mel… she'd honestly believed that he'd reached a point where he'd consider indiscriminate death as an acceptable course of action.

"Ah, good; you know each other," the Master said, smiling slightly as recognition flared in Mel's eyes- just like previous companions, after witnessing one regeneration it only took a couple of clues to realise when they'd met another incarnation-, evidently deliberately ignoring the tension that had settled over them after Mel recognised him. "Anyway, I'll just leave you two to catch up; play nice!"

With that, the Master turned around and walked out of the conference room, leaving the Doctor looking uncomfortably at his red-haired former companion as Mel simply stared back at him.

After a moment's silence as the two of them stared silently at each other, neither sure what to say to their former companion, the Doctor finally broke the silence.

"Mel…" he began, pausing for a few brief seconds to collect his thoughts before he continued speaking. "I'm sorry."

After another brief silence at her end, Mel snorted slightly.

"Oh, you're 'sorry'," she repeated, looking critically at him as she folded her arms. "'Sorry' doesn't do anything, Doctor; you _made _me leave you so you could become a mass murderer, you turned an enthusiastic young girl into a woman with a three-digit bodycount, you destroyed an entire _solar system_-"

"Words… are all I've got…" the Doctor gasped, looking apologetically at Mel. "Mel… whatever you think of me… you have to believe… I _didn't_-"

"Didn't what; _allow _who-knows-_how_-many innocent people to die in the name of 'the greater good'?" Mel retorted, glaring at him as she walked over to stand on the opposite side of the table from him, slamming her hands on the table as her eyes fixed on his. "You destroyed an entire _timeline_, Doctor; even _without _what you did to me, did you _really _think that was 'acceptable'?"

"If I hadn't… done _that_… _this _universe… would have lost _billions_ of years…" the Doctor countered, grateful that he had long ago decided to stay silent in the face of the Master's retorts; in his current physical condition, he needed all the strength he could call upon. "Do you… really think… that I could _ever_… kill _anybody_… without a _reason_?"

"You certainly didn't need one for abandoning _me_, did you?" Mel countered, leaning over further to practically spit in his face as she spoke. "After everything we saw, you just… _made _me leave you when it wasn't 'convenient' for you to have me around any more… and don't even get me _started_ on _this_!"

The Doctor couldn't help the sudden shock as he looked up at Mel, who was glaring at him with even more intense hatred than she had earlier, an explanation for her last words occurring to him even as he tried to deny what he'd just heard.

There was no way…

Mel _couldn't _believe that he'd…

Then he remembered what she'd said to him after their failure at Maradnias- to say nothing of her initial frustration at him during that whole Pompeii mess when he'd thought they were destined to lose the TARDIS in the eruption-, and re-evaluated that thought; even if Mel had forgiven him at the time, she _had _expressed a belief that he allowed evil to happen because it gave him something to fight.

"Mel…" he began, leaning against the table to help himself stand as he looked at her, "whatever else I did… do you _really _think… I would have _let _this happen to Earth-"

"Oh, if it preserves your 'web of time', I'd think you'd let _anything _happen to Earth if you had to!" Mel retaliated; the expression on her face was almost as cold as the expression she'd assumed when she left him last time. "You can't seriously tell me that the Time Lords would _let _the Master get away with this kind of change, but did you even _try _to ask them to stop him-?"

"They're _gone_, Mel!" the Doctor yelled, his weakness momentarily forgotten in outrage at what Mel was implying; he could excuse her grief at what had happened to her world as the reason why she apparently assumed he'd be in less trouble for stopping the Master if these events were part of history than the Master would be in for doing this if it wasn't. "The Time Lords are _dead_… they're all _dead_!"

Mel's eyes widened in horror, her anger momentarily overwhelmed by shock at what the Doctor had just told her.

"They're… they're _dead_?" she repeated, looking incredulously at her old friend. "But… but _how_?"

"There was a war…" the Doctor muttered, grateful that Mel hadn't accused him of lying about the fate of the Time Lords; given the way they'd ended things the last time they saw each other, it wouldn't have been impossible for her to assume that. "A terrible war… the Last Great Time War… and we lost. They all died… and the only 'consolation'… was that we took the enemy down with us."

For a moment Mel merely sat in silence, staring at him as though trying to work something out, before she spoke again.

"You ended it, didn't you?" she said simply.

Unlike earlier, her tone gave no hints of judgement, her earlier anger apparently put to the side for the moment in favour of learning more about what the Doctor had just said to her.

The Doctor could only nod.

"Gallifrey had already fallen…" he said, his voice low as he spoke; if it hadn't been important for him to ensure that Mel understood why the Master had been able to change history on this scale, he wouldn't have been talking about this. "The enemy were all over the planet… they had control of the _Matrix_…"

He sighed. "It was either destroy them both… or let Time itself fall to monsters."

"You didn't want to do either, right?" Mel said, her tone partly casual while her expression betrayed an earnest desire for confirmation,

"I tried to save what I could…" the Doctor said, lost in reflection as he recalled his last desperate attempt to save the Matrix- the data was practically hopelessly corrupted after what he'd put the TARDIS through in the last days of the war- and the war's immediate aftermath. "Tried to preserve something… but in the end, I couldn't."

He sighed again, memories he thought he'd long since buried after meeting Rose and Martha coming to the fore as he spoke. "I thought I was the only survivor… and then I found _him_… at the end of the universe…"

"And he got away before you recognised who he was?" Mel finished, standing up and walking over to stand beside him; for a moment, the Doctor thought she was going to place a hand on his shoulder, but in the end she simply remained silent, staring reflectively at him as though still trying to come to a decision.

"I thought it would be different…" the Doctor admitted, unable to stop a slight tear reaching his face as he remembered how he'd felt, in those brief moments between when he'd realised who Professor Yana really was and when the Master had left in the TARDIS, memories of their last battle in San Francisco briefly pushed aside by the knowledge that he was no longer the last of the Time Lords. "It was only us… there was no High Council to rebel against… no other Time Lords to hold him back… he even had a new set of _lives_…"

He sighed. "And in the end… all he can do… is kill and conquer… all over again…"

Once again, silence momentarily filled the room, neither one comfortable with saying anything more, until Mel spoke up again.

"You… you really regret it, don't you?" she said, looking uncertainly at him, as though unwilling to believe what she was seeing (Not that the Doctor could blame her; she hadn't exactly had a high opinion of his seventh incarnation after their last meeting, so it wasn't like she didn't have reason to regard him with some suspicion).

"I _always_… regretted it… Mel," he said, looking back at her, determined to say what he should have said to her during their last meeting. "I thought I knew… what I had to be… back then… and I saw you… as being in the way…"

"Oh, if you're going to get into _that_-" Mel began, standing up as though to leave.

"_But_," the Doctor interjected, reaching out to place a hand on her arm- God, he was a mess; even his _first _incarnation had never looked this weak during that mess with Mondas before he regenerated-, prompting her to look back at him, "whatever I was at the end… I _did _enjoy travelling with you, Mel…"

For a moment, Mel simply stood in silence, looking uncertainly at him, before she allowed herself a small smile.

"Well… those monopoly games _could _be amusing…" she said, her tone grudging even as the smile that began to slowly spread across her face hinted at her true feelings. "You _were _a bit melodramatic when we played them, though; I still think you enjoyed it too much…"

"True," the Doctor admitted, nodding briefly even as he continued to smile. "But how about… that time I won… the Inter-Galactic Song Contest? You can't say… I didn't deserve… to brag _then_…"

"Oh yes; a bomb about to destroy a secret conference being held telepathically and you went and played the spoons- the _spoons_- in front of _billions_ of people to buy us time to disarm it…" Mel said, shaking her head wistfully at the memory. "You know, looking back, that was probably the strangest thing we _ever _had to deal with…"

"Yep… fair point…" the Doctor mused, another brief smile on his face at the memories. "That mess with the Cnidarians… more 'ridiculous' than 'strange'…"

"Stupid, really; they come all that way to conquer us and never even checked what our water was like!" Mel said, only for her broad grin to be cut off as the door to the conference room slammed open.

"Oh, come _on_!" the Master yelled as he walked in, prompting Mel and the Doctor to move apart- Mel jumping back slightly from the surprise- and turn to look at the new arrival. "After all the _crap _he put you through, you're just going to _forgive him _like _that_? You said it yourself; he _made _you leave him because it wasn't 'convenient' to have you around any more, and here you are, laughing about some stupid _song contest _and mistakes made by _jellyfish _when he _abandoned _you with a small-time _crook_? _How can you just let it go like _THAT?"

Despite the knowledge of what the man before her was capable of, Mel turned to face the Master, placed a hand on the Doctor's shoulder, and smiled at him before turning back to the other Time Lord.

"He's the Doctor," she said simply.

The Master moved so fast the Doctor barely saw him move; the physically-elder Time Lord- even if he was definitely younger incarnation-wise- barely had time to blink before Mel was lying on the floor, clutching a vivid bruise on the left side of her face as she looked up at the Master, only for the Doctor's old friend to follow up the blow by drawing the laser screwdriver and aiming it at the woman who had been the Doctor's only trustworthy company during the aftermath of his sixth regeneration…

"_There_!" the Master said, turning back to face the Doctor with hi usual sadistic grin. "Now that we've got the delightful Miss Bush out of the way, we can get back to-!"

"You failed," the Doctor said simply.

"What?" the Master asked.

"You failed," the Doctor stated coldly, glaring at the man he'd once considered a friend. "You thought… that Mel would deny me… but she _forgave _me… and _that_… is something you… will _never _understand."

"Which is?" the Master asked, allowing himself a slight smirk as he looked at the Doctor, clearly already prepared to disregard whatever the Doctor had to say to him.

"The reason why I will _never _lose my faith," the Doctor said, leaning forward slightly to glare at the Master, forcing himself to ignore the stench of Mel's freshly-deceased body as it lay on the ground beside them as he focused all his attention onto the Master; even if his old friend wasn't paying attention to his words, he was going to say his piece. "Because every time I have _needed _them… the humans you dismiss so easily… have come through for me. Because Jamie believed I was real when he saw me fighting evil… because Jo was willing to die to ensure you could never control Kronos… because Peri threatened to strand herself on Sarn to stop you on her first trip… because Evelyn saw the humanity in a vampire… because Ace fought off a Dalek with a baseball bat… because Benny joined me because she recognised that I needed someone… because Sam survived and _thrived _for three years in a world she barely understood… because Fitz believed in me even after he felt that he had been replaced by what he saw as a clone… because Anji-"

"And now here you are, stuck relying on a companion you didn't even _want _to save the world," the Master cut in, smirking casually at him even as his eyes betrayed his frustration at his old friend; evidently he'd grown tired of the Doctor's speech, as he simply seemed to be bored rather than angry. "Face it, Doctor; in the end, your precious humans have all _abandoned_ you. Your 'favourite' actually chose _me _over you, at least _half_ of your old friends from this time are dead or useless, the other half can barely do a _thing _against me… and your only hope is the woman who was only ever the cheap substitute for what you couldn't have, and you never even let her _try _to measure up."

With that, he stepped back, the grin growing ever broader as he looked at his fellow Time Lord. "Think about that… _Thete_."

Even as the Master turned around to walk away, he was unaware of the train of thought that his words had just sparked in the Doctor's mind.

_Martha… a 'cheap substitute'_? the Doctor repeated to himself, turning over the Master's words in his mind. _But she _wasn't_… I didn't…_

_Did I_?

* * *

AN 2: For those unaware, Melanie Bush was a companion of the Sixth and Seventh Doctors with a rather unique history; she initially met the Sixth Doctor when he was on trial by the Time Lords for interference in the affairs of the universe and called on evidence from his own future in his defence, Mel- his companion from that future- being summoned to the trial to provide evidence before returning to her proper place in time. After that, the Doctor travelled with various other companions- including the shape-shifting Frobisher (Who spent his spare time as a penguin), history lecturer Evelyn Smythe, and (In a slightly paradoxical twist) his eighth incarnation's companion Charley Pollard (Charley forced to lie to him to conceal her knowledge of his future)- before he met Mel for the first time from _her _perspective, Mel subsequently travelling with the Doctor even after he regenerated into his seventh incarnation until she left him in "Dragonfire". During a brief reunion when they were attacked by the Doctor's counterpart from the Land of Fiction, Dr Who ("Head Games"), it was revealed that the Seventh Doctor deliberately influenced Mel's decision to leave him so that he could continue his new role as 'Time's Champion' without her morality to hold him back, prompting Mel to denounce him as a user and a possible murderer before Ace took her home

AN 3: To those wondering why the Master called the Doctor 'Thete' at the end, the Doctor's nickname at the Academy was Theta Sigma (No idea why that is, unfortunately; it could mean anything from the Doctor's initials to meaning something strange in some distant language we haven't heard of yet)


	17. Torchwood in the Mountains

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: As with the last Martha-based chapter, all that you need to know is that Martha's reached the Himalayas since the last time we saw her; the specific amount of time that's passed since then doesn't particularly matter

Broken Faith

Ducking behind a nearby boulder as the Toclafane flew overhead, Martha once again found herself wishing she could figure out a way to improve this whole 'perception filter' thing; every time she attracted attention to herself, she ran the risk of getting spotted by those sphere things, but if she _didn't _attract attention she'd never spread the Doctor's message in time…

_Talk about Catch-22_, she mused to herself, shaking her head in frustration as she watched the spheres pass overhead, blades out as they searched for her. She'd just been leaving some small village near the outskirts of the Himalayas after passing on her message again- she liked to alternate between major cities and small towns; it gave any agents the Master might send after her less chance of working out where she'd be going next- when a passing Toclafane patrol had noticed her saying goodbye to the family that had provided her with a bed for the night, killing her hosts instantly and leaving her forced to run for her life.

She'd managed to evade the Toclafane by hiding in the mountains- the grey of her clothing helped her blend in to the rocks she was climbing; it was the first time she'd been grateful that she'd lost her old favourite leather jacket all those months ago-, but she was certain that her luck couldn't hold out forever; more than once the Toclafane had come close to hitting her and had only missed her due to her ducking under convenient outcroppings or rocks at the last minute.

_God_… she groaned, looking up as another couple of Toclafane flew over above her, seemingly only just missing her, _what a way to go; stuck in a mountain before I'm even half-way through this whole mess…_

She'd known it would be risky to do this, but she'd hoped she'd manage to make it to at least the other side of the continent before she got taken out; even without making it to America, the faith of Europe and Russia could have been enough to restore the Doctor like he'd planned…

"Hey, you!" a voice suddenly yelled from off to one side. "Up here!"

Glancing in the direction the voice had come from, Martha was briefly frustrated to see nothing up there- to say nothing of being a bit scared; had she finally begun to crack because of the stress she was under?-, but then she pushed that thought aside and ran up in the direction of the voice; with everything else she'd encountered since she met the Doctor, it wasn't impossible to believe that some people might have managed to get their hands on a cloaking device or something…

"Not _that _way; over _here_!" another voice yelled- a male this time-, coming from an area to the left of the location that she was currently running towards. "God, if we're going to compromise ourselves, at least _try _and go the right way!"

Trying to ignore the desire to punch whoever made that last comment when she found him, Martha instead turned around to run up towards the voice, constantly scanning her surroundings even as she fought to ignore the sound of whirring blades behind her…

"Here!" a young woman said, suddenly appearing out of what appeared to be a normal cliff wall, dressed in dark trousers and jacket with shoulder-length black hair and a distinctly Welsh accent.

Martha decided to ponder the mysteries of what someone from Wales was doing with a cloaking device in the Himalayas later; as she hurried up towards the wall- the woman turning and walking _through _the wall as Martha approached her-, Martha forced all thoughts of the Toclafane out of her and concentrated on reaching the wall…

Only for it to almost immediately _stop _being a wall as she approached it and become a large cave entrance, three people sitting inside it looking at her in varying states of disarray; one of them- an attractive Japanese woman with dark hair in a simple purple blouse and dark trousers- had a makeshift splint on her left leg- clearly prepared with only a basic access to resources-, and the only man present had a distinctive scar on his face and a nose that gave the impression of having been broken.

"Gwen Cooper," the young woman said, holding out a hand to briefly shake Martha's before indicating the other two. "This is Toshiko Sato and Doctor Owen Harper; we're Torchwood-"

"Torchwood?" Martha repeated, looking curiously at the group before her, her curiosity briefly overriding her manners. "As in, Captain Jack Harkness's Torchwood?"

For a moment the three people before her could only stare silently at Martha, apparently unable to believe what they had just heard, until Doctor Harper finally broke the silence.

"Well, isn't that just _typical_?" he muttered, rolling his eyes as he looked up at the sky, wincing slightly at the pain in his nose. "We haven't seen him for _months_, and then a hot bird shows up out of nowhere and not only knows about our supposedly _secret _organisation, but actually knows who the boss is…"

"OK, firstly, you can get your mind out of the gutter; Jack and I _never _did… anything like what you're thinking!" Martha cut in, pointing a warning finger at Doctor Harper (She might not actually know what he was thinking, but given the Doctor's reaction to Jack's flirting with her and some of the Utopians- coupled with some of the stories about their pasts they'd shared while hiding from the Master-, Martha had a fairly good idea). "Secondly, it wasn't _exactly _a pleasant meeting; right now Jack and the Doctor are being held prisoner by the Master, and-"

"Hold on, 'the Doctor'?" Gwen repeated, looking with renewed urgency at Martha. "As in, Jack's Doctor? The one he was waiting for?"

"Well… yeah, that sounds about right," Martha confirmed, nodding at the other woman after briefly going over what she remembered from Jack's explanation of what he'd been doing in Cardiff; it _would _be accurate to say that Jack had been waiting for the Doctor.

"Was he… able to answer Jack's… questions?" Gwen asked, looking slightly uncomfortable as she spoke even as her face was unable to conceal her earnest desire to find an answer to that question.

Martha didn't need to wonder what the other woman meant by that; there had only really been one question Jack could have wanted the Doctor to answer for him, and he'd certainly been able to give Jack what he'd been looking for in that regard.

"He was," she said simply, her expression making it clear that she'd said all she had to say on the matter; even if these people _were _Jack's team, she wasn't going to start telling them about Jack's current status unless he _wanted _them to know it.

"So," she asked, indicating the large cave entrance she'd just run though- noting with only slight surprise that it was completely transparent from this side-, deciding to get the more immediately important matters out of the way before asking any personal questions, "how does that thing work?"

"Oh… it's partly inspired by a feature protecting one of the entrances to our headquarters back in Cardiff; I'd been working on a means of artificially duplicating the original to create a portable version for a while now and brought it along when we were 'summoned' here," Toshiko explained. "The cave isn't actually _invisible_, but unless someone- a _human_ someone; I managed to 'program' the filter to block the Toclafane from seeing through it after I was able to take a scan of one during a recent attack and get an idea about their body chemistry- really _wants _to see it, or we attract their attention like we did you, they miss it."

"Really?" Martha said, making a mental note to ask the Doctor and Jack about that when she saw them again; it _did _sound remarkably like it might be connected to the TARDIS, given what the Doctor had told her about how the key around her neck was able to prevent anyone from noticing her…

"Of course, it's still got a few teething problems," Toshiko said, shrugging slightly as she continued speaking, drawing Martha's attention back to the matter at hand, "but at the time we didn't think there was much choice; we'd already lost…"

She paused for a moment, exchanging brief glances with her associates, all of them clearly briefly lost in reflection and contemplation, before she turned back to Martha. "Well… we lost a friend, and this seemed like the best way to ensure we didn't end up joining him."

Just as the Torchwood team had avoided asking her for further information about Jack, Martha decided not to press the subject; evidently, whoever the team had lost, they would prefer not to talk about him unless they had to do so.

Besides… as selfish as it seemed, what Toshiko had just suggested had given her a _very _interesting idea that she had a great interest in pursuing…

"You said you were able to 'tweak' the filter to prevent the Toclafane seeing it while allowing humans to do it if they want to?" she asked, looking curiously at the woman.

"Well, it's still a bit uncertain at times, but in general it seems to work," Toshiko confirmed, nodding at the other woman. "I managed to take a scan of a few Toclafane during some of their attacks with this miniature scanner we cobbled together from some technology we had back at the base. It was only enough to give me the basics of their biology- there's definitely _something _organic in that sphere-, but I was able to work out the wavelengths they use to process visual information from the outside world and modify the filter to block out those wavelengths specifically; everything else sees them normally once attention's been drawn to it."

"Right…" Martha said, nodding thoughtfully before she pulled the TARDIS key out from under her jacket and showing it to Toshiko. "Is there any chance you could do anything with this to make it do the same thing as the filter- you know, prevent the Toclafane from registering it while leaving humans still able to see me…?"

"A key?" Gwen said, looking uncertainly at the object in Martha's hand.

"It's been infused with a perception filter similar to what you're using there," Martha said, indicating the cave entrance before she passed the key on to the Japanese woman. "I've been using it to avoid the Toclafane so far, but I need to be able to make contact with people if I'm going to get anywhere, and the Toclafane keep on noticing me whenever I'm on my own; if you could do… well, _anything _with it…"

Taking the key from Martha, Toshiko studied it for a few moments in silence before she pulled a scanning device of some sort out of her pocket, glancing at the readings before nodding thoughtfully.

"Yeah… this _should _work…" she said, pocketing the scanning device as she looked back at Martha. "If you don't mind waiting here for a day or two, I can probably whip up something that should prevent anyone from seeing you while you're wearing this key so long as they have hostile intentions towards you; anyone who just wants to see _you_ should still be able to do so."

Martha smiled.

"Great," she said, nodding thankfully at the Japanese woman even as she calculated how that would impact her schedule; assuming she moved rapidly- and with the issue of the Toclafane spotting her removed from her list of concerns she'd be able to make much better time-, she could probably reach her next destination in at least half the time it had taken her to get to this point.

"Forgive me if this is a dumb question, but wouldn't it make more sense to find somewhere to hide and just… well, _not _do whatever this 'Master' berk wants you not to do?" Doctor Harper asked, looking at Martha with a gaze that made it clear he thought she was an idiot.

"Trust me," Martha countered, returning Harper's gaze with one of her own, "if there was another way, I'd be taking it, but I don't have a choice; I _have _to do this."

"Why?" Harper asked, his expression still clearly critical of her.

"Because," Martha said, looking scathingly at the man before her, "the Doctor gave me a mission, and right now it might be the only way to save us all."

For a moment there was only silence, the Torchwood team clearly uncertain what to say about that, before Gwen spoke again.

"When you say 'the Doctor'… you mean _Jack's _Doctor, right?" she asked.

"He's not just 'Jack's' Doctor; he's the _universe's _Doctor," Martha said, looking resolutely over at Gwen; this might be a smaller audience than she was used to, but she was going to share her story. "He's travelled across all of time and space, from the Big Bang all the way to the end of the universe, but he keeps coming back to Earth, always coming in to save us when we're in danger from everything from temporal anomalies to alien invasions…"

* * *

AN 2: I KNOW the scene with Tosh 'tweaking' the key is a bit 'deus ex machina'-ish, but I felt that it had be done; it didn't make SENSE to me that Tom was able to see Martha while the Toclafane couldn't during her return to Britain in "Last of the Time Lords" simply because he 'wanted' to see her- surely the Toclafane would have wanted to see Martha just as much as Tom, albeit for different reasons-, so I had to come up with an explanation for that particular discrepancy, and this seemed like the best option


	18. Rose, Regenerations, and Revelations

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: Once again, just assume it's been a few weeks since the last chapter set on the _Valiant_; precise dates aren't important

AN 2: Another reference here to my story "Filling in the Blanks"; precise knowledge is not required, but reading it might help

Broken Faith

Ever since Mel's demise and their subsequent brief argument, the Doctor hadn't seen much of Rose or the Master. Whether that was because matters on Earth were keeping them too occupied to pay attention to him, or simply because neither of them had anything they particularly wanted to say to him, he didn't know and didn't particularly care.

After Rose's last couple of visits had been met with nothing but silence when she kept on trying to preach to him about the greatness of the Master- he was reminded vaguely of Soldeed's talk of 'the Nimon be praised', along with various other religious groups he'd met over the years; some things tended to stick more than others- she'd stopped coming to see him on a regular basis, while the Master's absence was most likely simply because he couldn't find any more companions to kill in front of the Doctor at the moment.

That was the advantage of time travel, really; his companions could leave him to stay in so many different times and places that in the end the odds against the Master being able to find more than a few of them on one planet at one particular moment in history were practically infinitesimal…

His fondness for the twentieth century did make the odds of the Master finding anyone a bit better, of course, but that still left quite a few people out there in the universe, far beyond where the Master could reach them (Steven, Nyssa, Evelyn and Benny sprang to mind)…

The Doctor pushed those thoughts aside; the only thing that was doing was distracting him from looking back at what the Master had pointed out to him.

When he'd been travelling with Martha…

He had hurt her.

Constantly, pointlessly, and thoughtlessly, all without even being fully aware that he was doing it in the first place.

All she had wanted was a little affection... just enough to know that he appreciated her for _her_, rather than always seeing her as the woman who was there instead of the person who he _wanted _to be there... to be appreciated for who she was rather than resented (The Doctor didn't think that term entirely appropriate- he'd never treated Martha like he _hated _her, he just hadn't given her the chance to prove herself as _her_- but he couldn't think of a better one at the moment) what she wasn't... and he hadn't given it to her.

He'd told her when she'd first walked into the TARDIS, that night after her brother's birthday party had fallen apart, that she wouldn't be replacing Rose, fully intending to treat her as another new companion... and in the end, he'd done nothing _but _compare Martha Jones to Rose Tyler, always seeing her as coming up short without ever admitting to himself that he was comparing her to an ideal that that never been as good in reality as he thought it was now that she was gone...

And why had he done that?

Because his previous self's desperate need to connect with another living being after regaining his memories of the Time War- to say nothing of his subsequent regeneration after he failed to save the Nestene feeding planets; he couldn't help but wonder sometimes if things would have been better if Fitz and Trix had stayed with him until he regenerated and helped him sort out his new personality rather than leaving immediately after that incident with the Vore was resolved- had become warped and twisted after his regeneration and subsequent 'imprinting' on Rose Tyler to the point where he was more attached to her than he should have been.

It was almost the inverse of his sixth incarnation's initial treatment of Peri, really; while he'd subconsciously tried to reject Peri for 'killing' his past self- his still slightly toxaemia-addled mind initially unable to recognize that he had still made his own decision to save her in the end-, after his eighth regeneration, with no companions to help him explore his new self and not even any Time Lords to make him feel better (He'd always been subconsciously aware of his peoples' presence even when he'd been a totally independent renegade during his first regeneration), he'd latched on to Rose as the first person his past self had been able to form a meaningful connection with, while also seeking to- on some level- 'repay' her for the risk she'd taken to save him by taking the Time Vortex into herself, essentially becoming as devoted to her as she'd been to him...

But, in the end, as he looked back on those events, he had to face facts; in every way that really mattered, it _hadn't _been Rose who'd saved him from the Dalek Emperor's army on Satellite Five.

It had been the Bad Wolf- a classic example of the time paradoxes he'd hoped to leave behind him after that mess with Sam and her dark-haired other self; that had given him a bit of a headache even _before_ the Daleks had 'replaced' the Faction after he'd erased Grandfather Paradox's timeline- that had inspired her to come back then and try to help him, rather than Rose herself; barely hours later on their personal timeline, when faced with the Sycorax invasion of Earth, she'd chosen to run and hide away in the TARDIS rather than try something else.

Admittedly, he couldn't think of anything she _could _have tried back then, but that had never stopped some of his past companions. Barely hours after meeting him, Dodo had insisted on accompanying him in meeting the Gods despite her having no idea what she could have done to help him or any real knowledge about who any of the involved parties were, Tegan had resolved to stay with him as he and the Master fought to save the universe after even less time with him and an even greater upheaval from her previous life, and that was even without looking at what some of his companions had risked and done after spending _more _time with him...

It was practically the first rule of travelling with him if you were going to do it on a long-term basis; _never _give up fighting even when you can't think of anything to try and barely understand what you're up against, because whatever you try to do might just turn out to be that lucky break that turns the tide in your favour.

All of his companions in his first eight lives- even Ian and Barbara, although that might have been because back then they didn't entirely trust him to do it himself- had understood that.

In the end, even _Katarina_- possibly his shortest-running companion, even if he still remembered her as clearly as any of the others; the guilt of her death would never truly leave him- had understood that; she'd barely been able to comprehend what she'd become involved in during that dark confrontation- the first time he'd failed to save his companions-, but she'd still taken more than one desperate chance to help him and Steven do what they had to do to get away from the Daleks…

But Rose?

She'd had her moments of glory, he wasn't denying that, but attempting to escape alien prisons or erecting barricades wasn't the same as standing up to invading aliens, whether on a large scale or on an individual basis; with prisons there was almost always a routine you could learn to exploit in time, and barricades were just based on an instinctive reaction to hide from danger, but in a crisis you _really_ had to think on your feet to do something...

And, in the end, as the Doctor looked back, he couldn't help but admit that Rose had never demonstrated the ability to do that; most of the time she'd just stayed by his side and waited for him to come up with something.

He might have only actually _accused _her of giving up on him during that confrontation on the Sycorax ship when he was still trying to recover from his last regeneration, but she'd done it before and she would go on to do it again, constantly giving up on him whenever he suffered some kind of accident or was taken out of the picture in some way (Including that one occasion where he'd actually been put _into _a picture!), and only being inspired to do something by outside influences rather than deciding to take action herself.

Even that incident on Arkannis Major with those imagination-'enhancing' micro-organisms didn't count, now that he looked back at it. She might have technically come up with the plan of how to investigate and infiltrate the Big White House by herself, but the fact that she'd needed the encouragement of an imaginary version of _him_ to do the job didn't exactly demonstrate the independent spirit he'd always tried to encourage in his companions; past companions would have just gone to the house on nothing but their own resolve.

_Independence_...

That was the crucial term, really.

His enemies might accuse him of making his companions need him to justify his own existence and provide him with people who would always depend on him- the Toymaker's words when taunting him about his fifth self's youth still rang in his ears, although that had more to do with Rallon's subsequent sacrifice than anything else-, but he liked to think that he encouraged them to _grow_ as people as well (Even if he _did _wish they'd listen to him when he told them not to wander off).

He wanted them to stay with him, of course- it got lonely exploring the universe with no one else to share it with-, but he also wanted to help them learn how to survive outside of their original 'comfort zones', encouraging them to grow beyond who they were at the beginning of their travels to gain the potential to be anything they wanted to be after they left him. Steven had gone from being a practically discharged and ignored space pilot to the leader of an advanced civilisation in the far future, Sarah tackled alien threats single-handedly, Nyssa had cured all kinds of diseases and gone on to have a family even after losing everything- he really admired her a lot more now that he better understood what she'd been going through back then-, Benny had gone from a simple archaeologist to a valued member of the Braxiatel Collection, and even those companions who'd simply returned to their original lives had done so with a greater sense of satisfaction and comfort in their old identities.

Rose had never displayed any real sign of growth during her time with him; if anything had grown, it was her dependence on him, to the extent that, in the end, she seemed to rely on him...

_Too _much, really; whenever he wasn't there to give suggestions, she generally seemed to just give up on fighting until he got back.

He _hadn't_ been helping her to expand and grow; he'd helped her become so _dependent_ on him that by the end of her time with him she needed his suggestion just to go looking around Torchwood headquarters.

None of his previous companies would have needed that suggestion; even without the psychic paper as a possible aid, even Victoria- the least spiritually dominating of his companions, looking back; he'd cared for her as he would have a daughter, but she'd never entirely seemed comfortable with everything her new life had thrown at her- would have gone out on her own to find answers in that situation…

But Rose… where other companions would have tried to merely bluff their way through on attitude, she had needed the psychic paper before she felt comfortable trying something like that, and even then (From what he'd seen when he studied Torchwood's security videos after closing the breach; he'd wanted to make sure there wasn't anything left hanging around that someone else could use) she'd barely managed to go anywhere before she was caught in the room containing the Void ship.

She _needed _him… more than she really should have.

_And I didn't see it because I was too attached_... the Doctor groaned, inwardly cursing his past self for his mistakes.

Had he laid the seeds back then for what she'd become now?

Had he allowed her to become so convinced that she needed another to justify her own life that she'd... latched on to the Master as a convenient replacement when he wasn't there?

As much as the Doctor hated to admit it, it was looking increasingly like his still-developing theory was correct; he'd hurt Martha Jones on a level almost deeper than any alien weapon or technology could have accomplished, all because of his attachment to a young woman who'd turned out not to be worth it…

God… and he'd thought that nearly strangling Peri was his personal low point as far as unstable regenerations went; his ninth incarnation had been so screwed-up he'd turned to Rose for stability and companionship simply because she was the first person he'd met in that body without even getting a better idea of who she was as a _person_, and she'd latched onto him so strongly that she'd developed this… _obsession_… with him.

Obsession…

That was the only word for it; he couldn't call how she felt about him 'love', not after what she'd done.

If Rose had truly loved him, she would have understood why he _couldn't _try and get her back; the risk of two universes collapsing on them wasn't worth the chance that they might have ended up back together… and that wasn't even taking into account what she'd done since she'd married the _Master_.

The only problem now, as far as the Doctor was concerned, was the fact that, even with that particular epiphany- an unpleasant one, to be sure, but an epiphany nevertheless- about Rose out of the way, there was still the somewhat uncomfortable issue of where his thoughts were starting to go regarding how he _really _felt about the woman he'd initially dismissed- albeit without consciously realising it- as her 'replacement'…


	19. Onihr or Judoon?

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: As always at this point, specific time frames are unimportant; the important thing is that Martha's reached India.

AN 2: I'm not ENTIRELY happy with this chapter, but I couldn't help it; the past companion here had far more questions for Martha than I was expecting, to say nothing of what she was able to tell Martha in return

Broken Faith

Staring up at the Bombay Stock Exchange- a name that Martha couldn't help but puzzle over slightly; if the city had renamed itself Mumbai why was this building still called by its original name?-, she allowed herself a brief moment to wonder at the Master's reasons for leaving such a large building intact before pushing it aside.

She'd already told her story to a significantly-sized group in this city, so she should really be moving on as soon as possible, but she couldn't resist the chance to look around at some of the examples of architecture the city had on offer. A few of the buildings were in varying states of disrepair after the Toclafane assault, of course- mainly with windows having been broken as the Toclafane dived into houses, although a few houses had been literally demolished; the Rajabai clock tower in particular reminded her of Big Ben after that spaceship had crashed into it a couple of years ago-, but in general the damage done to some of the more classical buildings wasn't that bad; the Gateway of India had particularly impressed her, although she'd made a mental note to see about spending a night in the Taj Mahal hotel if she had the chance once this was all over.

Still, even after seeing all those classical architectural sites, something about the sheer size of the building before her still managed to impress her, leaving her ever more uncertain about why the Master would leave it intact; he struck her as the type who'd prefer to crush all reminders of what the human race had accomplished while they were free from his authority to limit potential uprising…

Then again, maybe he'd just concluded that the Archangel Network would be enough to discourage resistance without destroying symbols, or maybe he had just decided not to bother wasting time taking out buildings unless he had to; Martha didn't know, and probably never would know.

_The mind of a Time Lord_… she reflected, looking up at the Bombay Stock Exchange with a wistful smile on her face. _Complicated to get into, but with the right Time Lord, it can be as incredible as anything to learn about…_

It was one reason she'd… noticed… the Doctor after learning what he was, really; the way he was able to make those casual comments about meeting Benjamin Franklin or being barefoot on the moon even with the Judoon and that Plasmavore in the hospital had shown her a glimpse of a man who was more… _alive_… than anyone she'd ever known…

"Impressive sight, isn't it?" a voice said from alongside her, prompting Martha to turn and look at a young woman, maybe a few years older than her, dressed in what had probably once been a smart business suit before it fell victim to the general wear and tear of life in the Master's world.

"One of many they've got here, really," Martha said, nodding briefly as she continued to stare at the building before her. "I've never been certain whether I preferred classic or modern buildings; everything seems impressive once you reach a certain scale, I suppose…"

"I know what you mean; when I was… travelling… a few years ago, I reached a point where almost everything I saw seemed interesting in its own way no matter what size it was," the woman replied, shaking her head wistfully as she looked at the building before her. "I generally preferred the more… modern… stuff, but the past has its own appeal; it just isn't quite what I'd go for."

"Well, to each their own," Martha said, shrugging slightly as she turned to hold out her hand to the other woman, deciding that it would be best to deal with the issue of introductions before they went any further. "I'm Martha Jones-"

"Hold on; _you're _Martha Jones?" the woman said, looking at her in surprise before Martha could say anything else.

"Yes…" Martha replied, looking with renewed uncertainty at the woman, mentally berating herself as she did so; she _really _needed to learn to think more about telling her name to random strangers…

"My name's Anji Kapoor," the woman replied, looking at her with a renewed small smile. "I think, after hearing what you've been telling people, that we might have a… friend in common."

After meeting Professor Chesterton back in Russia, the implications of Anji's comment meant that the subsequent revelation wasn't as much of a surprise to Martha as it might have been, but she couldn't help but be slightly suspicious at the apparent randomness of the encounter.

"A friend known for his use of a certain… sonic-based tool, maybe?" Martha asked, recalling her story this time around; she'd mentioned the TARDIS for a change, but the Doctor's usual tool was one detail she'd never mentioned before now.

"Oh, the sonic screwdriver?" Anji asked, smiling slightly at Martha as she shook her head wistfully at the memory. "Oh, he used it all right; most of my first trip was spent with him re-learning how to use that thing after getting it back for the first time in a century…"

For a moment the other woman was silent, old memories coming back to her, before she assumed a more curious expression while looking at Martha. "Does he… remember who he was yet?"

"Remember who he was?" Martha repeated, looking uncertainly at Anji. "What do you mean?"

"Oh… when I knew him the Doctor couldn't remember a thing about his past because of some 'accident' that he couldn't remember and his other friend Fitz wouldn't tell me about," Anji explained, shrugging slightly to express her evident frustration at the memory. "All I knew was that whatever had happened to him had left him stuck on Earth for pretty much the whole of the twentieth century with no memory of who he was while he waited for his TARDIS to regenerate itself after… whatever happened to him happened to him."

Martha's eyes widened.

"He was on Earth for a _century_?" she repeated, her eyes wide at the implications of that last comment.

She could barely even imagine what that must have been like for the Doctor; even without his memory of what he was missing, she'd seen and heard enough from the Doctor to know that he didn't age at the same rate as humans did.

Having to live on Earth for all that time, always aware of how different you were without knowing _why _you were different…

Martha couldn't help but feel a renewed sense of sympathy for the Doctor; even when he didn't remember what he'd done, he wouldn't have been able to escape the feeling that he was alone in the world, condemned to watch everyone age around him without ever knowing why he wasn't doing the same…

She couldn't help but wonder for a moment if he might have been better off that way- was it better to just think you were a freak rather than to live with the knowledge that you were the last living member of your entire species?-, but she pushed that thought aside.

If the Doctor had never regained his memories, he would never have known where he came from or what inspired him to begin his travels across the universe; if he hadn't known where he'd come from, how could he ever appreciate what he was in the present?

"Well… if he couldn't remember who he was then, I can tell you that he _definitely _remembers now," Martha said, nodding briefly at Anji while allowing herself a slight smile at the memory of the Doctor telling her about a Gallifreyian sunrise during that time on New Earth; even if it had hurt him to remember it, it had felt… nice… to know that he wanted to share that much with her. "He told me all about his home planet on my second trip in the TARDIS; he even…"

For a moment, Martha paused to collect herself- even if she appreciated the Doctor sharing some stories of his past with her there would always be that small part of her (Even if meeting Professor Chesterton and Mrs Wright had assured her that the Doctor had also travelled with friends as well as _girl_friends) that resented the knowledge that others had come before her and still had difficulty talking about them to others-, before she continued talking. "Well, he's made more than the occasional passing reference to some of his old friends and a few of his own people…"

"His own people?" Anji said, looking at Martha with a renewed interest. "You mean he actually _found _the others?"

Martha paused.

"The others?" she repeated, looking in confusion at Anji.

"Oh, he mentioned once after this incident with other-dimensional apes- a long and _really _complicated story, trust me; I was there and I _still _don't get what was happening- that he'd heard he was one of four people who survived whatever happened to his race; he never actually _found _any of them, but we found a few relics they'd left behind before I left him," Anji said, looking for a moment like she was going to say something else before she thought better of it and resumed her curious look at Martha. "So, where did he find them?"

For a moment Martha couldn't help but wonder if the Doctor had been lying about that comment that he'd been the last of the Time Lords when he'd spoken to her on New Earth; had he just said that because it was easier to lie rather than admit there were others…

As soon as that idea had crossed her head, however, Martha pushed that aside; the Doctor's shock at the realisation that Yana had a fobwatch like his had been too genuine. If he _had _heard information about 'elementals' still being alive back when Anji was travelling with him, he must have discovered something after she left that led to him concluding that either the 'elementals' were dead or the information had been inaccurate to begin with.

"He… he didn't," she said in the end, deciding it would be best to make the explanation simple. "They're all dead; he told me himself. He's the last of his kind… well, except for the Master, and to say he wasn't exactly happy to find _him _would be putting it mildly."

(Martha freely acknowledged that what she'd said wasn't entirely accurate- the Doctor _had _been at least somewhat relieved to know he was no longer alone, it was mainly the fact that the other survivor was the _Master_ he'd seemed to be having trouble with-, but she was trying to keep things simple; she already had enough to deal with without working out where those 'other elementals' might fit in.)

"Yeah, I heard that detail about your story," Anji said, nodding grimly as she looked up at the building before her. "I guess I just hoped that there might be others out there who could stop Mr Saxon…"

"Well, there's not," Martha said, shaking her head as she looked at Anji with a slightly apologetic expression for ending that particular hope. "It's the Doctor and the Master; there's nobody else, and the Doctor's the only hope we've got."

Anji could only nod at that.

"He was good in those situations," she said, allowing herself a brief smile. "I wasn't sure about him at first- I didn't get why he always kept on running off after the last crisis was dealt with-, but when I realized that he just left to avoid things becoming complicated… when I saw him appeal to the humanity in a monster…"

She shrugged slightly as she looked back at Martha. "You almost can't help but have faith in him whatever else happens, really."

Martha didn't bother to ask Anji what else had happened. After all she'd been hearing over the last few months about the various different faces and personalities the Doctor had assumed over the course of his lifetime, she had no way of knowing which version of the Doctor Anji had known, and saw no point in learning about what the Doctor might have been willing to do in a previous body.

She knew what he would and wouldn't do in _this_ one; until she had the time to ask the Doctor directly what Anji had meant by that comment, that was enough for her.

"It might have been hard at time… but, in the end, I think I'll always remember my time with him," Anji said, allowing herself a small smile as she looked back at Martha. "After all, how else could I have had the chance to meet a race of intelligent tigers?"

"Tigers?" Martha repeated, looking at Anji in more-than-slight surprise.

"Well, they were really just an alien species that _looked _a lot like tigers, but why get bogged down in those kind of details, huh?" Anji said, shrugging slightly as she looked over at Martha. "Besides, that wasn't exactly the strangest thing I encountered even if it came close; there was this whole incident with rhino-like aliens-"

"Hold on; you encountered the Judoon?" Martha said, looking at Anji curiously.

"Judoon?" Anji repeated, looking at Martha in surprise. "They were the _Onihr_; I've never even _heard _of the Judoon…"

"Really?" Martha asked, looking at the other woman in confusion; she definitely seemed to be telling the truth, and there was no reason to lie about something so relatively trivial, but that left more than a few questions. "But… how can two different species _both _look like rhinos?"

"The same reason the Doctor looks human?" Anji suggested uncertainly, only for Martha to shake her head.

"No, I asked him about that once; he said that the human form shows up so much across the universe because of something about the… morphic field of the first humanoid race to evolve… _influenced _evolution in the rest of the universe to copy that appearance…" Martha said, pausing briefly as she tried to recall the precise details before she shook it off; it had been complicated enough for her to even try and understand that explanation when the Doctor was giving it originally, the last thing she wanted to do was to try and _explain _it to someone else.

"Look," she said, turning her attention back to the original question as she looked at Anji, "getting back to the Judoon issue, maybe they're just offshoots of the same race or something like that; what did the… Onihr… look like?"

"Well…" Anji said, pausing briefly in thought before she nodded as the memory came back to her. "The ones I saw were about eight feet tall, long arms for their bulk, large horns, wide torsos, hunched backs, grey skin-"

"Grey?" Martha interjected, a slight smile on her face at this new validation of her still-forming theory. "The Judoon's skin was about the same colour as the average Caucausian; maybe the Onihr were… well, the equivalent of Africans on their homeworld or something?"

"They changed their species name based on a difference of _skin colour_?" Anji said, looking uncertainly at Martha. "That seems a bit extreme for any species…"

"Maybe their methods had something else to do with it," Martha speculated. "What were the Onihr after?"

"They were trying to capture the Doctor to make him tell them the secret of time travel," Anji replied.

"And the Judoon were basically just intergalactic police-for-hire who'd been sent to find an alien prisoner who was hiding in the hospital," Martha said, nodding slightly as she and Anji looked at each other. "If they _are _connected, the Onihr are probably the intellectuals of the species; maybe the Judoon just broke off from them at some point because they wanted to find a field where they felt their talents got respect rather than being looked down on by the Onihr?"

"Seems… likely," Anji agreed, nodding uncertainly as she looked at Martha. "It _does _fit the facts; the Onihr _were _rather arrogant about their abilities…"

"Anyway," Martha said after a moment's silent contemplation, looking at Anji with a casual smile as she came up with a new topic for discussion, "putting matters like what a bunch of alien rhinos want to call themselves for whatever reason, my first trip in the TARDIS resulted in us dealing with a bunch of witch-like aliens who wanted to use William Shakespeare to open a portal that would allow their race to gain access to our universe; how about you?"

"Theme park in the future ruled by three psychotic triplet sisters," Anji replied, smiling wistfully at the memory as the two women began to walk to another part of the city (Martha was fairly sure she could afford to spend an hour or so talking with the other woman before she had to move on without it affecting her schedule). "Although I think I mainly remember it because the local terrorist organisation had coincidentally named themselves after me…"

In the end, both women knew that all their talk was nothing but talk in the end- a pointless means of diverting themselves away from their present circumstances, stuck in a world ruled by a psychopath with only a slim hope that an instruction and a prayer would be enough to save the day at the last minute-, but there was no denying that it brought them comfort, if only for a short while, to talk about the most remarkable months of their lives with someone who could definitely understand what it had been like back then.

* * *

AN 3: A case where clarification is REALLY important- given that the novels are now out of print, making it more difficult to find examples of her in action-; Anji first encountered the Eighth Doctor at the end of the 'Stuck on Earth' arc in the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures, a series of stories where the Doctor- having lost his memory after the destruction of Gallifrey and with the TARDIS having been drained of all its power and reduced to about a square inch in size- was forced to spend a century on Earth to recover, subsequently being reunited with his companion Fitz- who had witnessed the destruction of Gallifrey but been rescued at the last minute by the Doctor's other companion at the time, the sentient TARDIS Compassion- in 2001. Anji's boyfriend, Dave, had recently been abducted by an alien race called the Kulan, but after she became caught up in the Doctor's attempts to defeat the Kulan- culminating in the restoration of the TARDIS, although the Doctor's memory loss remained-, Anji ended up unwillingly travelling in the TARDIS due to the Doctor's amnesia preventing him from accurately controlling the ship enough to return her to her home time. She subsequently remained with the Doctor and Fitz until they eventually managed to take her home after stabilising a disruption to the fabric of reality that caused various alternate universes to 'compete' for the 'title' of the 'prime' timeline (The terrorist organisation with her name was the Association for New Jupiter Independence from the novel "EarthWorld", in case anyone's interested)

AN 4: The talk of the 'other Elementals' refers to the name given to the Time Lords after their destruction by those who were aware of their absence without actually knowing anything specific about them; 'Elementals' referred to their status of maintaining temporal and dimensional stability in the universe. The Doctor learned from a man who may have been the Master (Although he was never explicitly identified) that others of their race might still exist in "The Adventuress of Henrietta Street", but I'm assuming that, given the Ninth Doctor's certainty that he would know if other Time Lords survived in "Dalek", once the Doctor regained his memories he regained the knowledge that he should be aware of his people's presence in his mind, and thus knows that there are in reality no elementals left in the universe (What happened to the other 'elementals'- given that they were never expressly identified- is up to you; all that matters is that the 'Master' the Doctor spoke to was either lying or wasn't being entirely accurate when he revealed their existence to the Doctor)

AN 5: The Onihr were a race of would-be time-travelling rhino-like aliens who appeared in the novel "Trading Futures", attempting to acquire time travel by interrogating the Doctor; unfortunately, instead of abducting the Doctor they captured his companion Fitz, believing that _Fitz_ was the Doctor, and Fitz was able to program their primary weapon to backfire and destroy their ship before he escaped. It's a minor detail, I know, but the odds of two different species evolving in such a manner as to look so _exactly _like rhinos seemed so unlikely I had to come up with an explanation for it, and Martha's idea seemed like the best one


	20. Revelation of the Doctor

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now (Oh, and the poem featured here was written by William Blake, and thus isn't mine either)

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: No specific time frame between this chapter and the last couple; all that matters is that, by this point, Martha's reached Japan (A fact that will become relevant towards the end of this chapter)

Broken Faith

As he sat in his tent staring listlessly out at the wall before him, the more the Doctor looked back at his actions regarding the companions who had shared in his travels over his last two lives- the Master and Rose had continued to leave him alone recently; most likely they were trying to make him crack by depriving him of something to fight against-, the more he was forced to come to a realisation that hurt him almost more than the Master's forced aging had done.

All the qualities he'd thought he'd found in Rose… her strength of will… her refusal to give up… her intellect... her unshakeable dedication and belief that he could save the day wherever they arrived, counterbalanced by a willingness to try and do it herself if he was unavailable or incapacitated for some reason…

Martha had them all.

He'd found a woman who basically personified everything he'd ever wanted without even knowing he'd been looking for it ever since the death of his eighth incarnation…

And he hadn't allowed himself to see it because he'd been in too much pain from the loss of a woman who hadn't been worth the feelings he'd developed for her.

In some way, he'd known that he felt differently about Martha than he would about a normal companion from the beginning- why else, even before she'd told him that story about him walking up to her on the street when he'd never seen her before, would he have allowed her to become aware of his second heart after going to so much trouble to stop it when he went through the initial check-ups to get into the hospital in the first place?-, but he'd denied it because he'd been in so much pain over the loss of Rose that he hadn't wanted to risk getting hurt again.

It was almost pathetic, now that he looked back; he'd spent most of his time with Martha hiding behind past grief to avoid the risk of future pain, even as he'd kept Martha around because he enjoyed her company and didn't want to lose someone else that he… cared for…

Then he'd seen Rose again, married to his oldest friend and greatest enemy, and everything he thought he knew had been shaken.

He'd spoken with her... he'd tried to help her...

And, in the end, when he'd failed to get through to her, he'd been forced to recognise that Rose Tyler was more selfish and immature than he'd believed…

And he hadn't been as shaken by the revelation as the Master might have intended.

It had hurt, he wasn't going to deny it, but what hurt almost more than that was the realisation that he'd completely ignored the _possibility _of starting something with Martha... only to realise that the reason he'd stopped himself hadn't been worth it.

He supposed part of the problem was the whole... _feeling _thing, really; he just didn't have much experience at feeling... _this _way about the people he travelled with. His first three incarnations had preferred to assume a paternal role to their various companions- even if his third incarnation had also worked on a more equal level with the rest of the UNIT senior staff-, the fourth version was pretty much so determined to go back to wandering the universe that he sometimes had trouble connecting to them on _any _level- one of the reasons he'd hurt Sarah like he had, to say nothing of explaining why he'd never tried to have anything… like _that_… with Romana despite thinking about it more than once-, his fifth body was too shy to even try to get anywhere even if he wanted to, the sixth had personality problems that barely even _began _with his coat, the seventh was so busy making plans and traps he sometimes wasn't comfortable letting _himself _know what he was really feeling- mostly because he wouldn't have been able to do at least half of what he'd done in that incarnation if he'd spent too much time engaged in personal psychoanalysis-, and the eighth had so much stuff to deal with- the paradox of Charley's survival when history recorded her demise, the discovery of the Future War, the mystery of his century-long amnesic exile, Sabbath's plans to collapse reality down to a single timeline- that he couldn't spare the time to try and develop anything even when he wanted to...

But his last two lives?

His eighth life might have begun to develop an interest in romantic attachment- starting with that thing with Grace (More based around some slight post-regenerative instability, even if he _had _enjoyed her company) and going on to such encounters as his time with Debbie (It was really just two friends seeking some comfort and support from each other rather than anything deeper) or his 'marriage' (Even if it was primarily symbolic) to Scarlette-, but he'd still been Time Lord enough to feel as though it wouldn't be fair on anyone to pursue anything more, and even when he couldn't remember his past some old 'habits' had remained.

After his regeneration, with no other Time Lords left- after he'd regained his memories he'd become aware of the absence of the presence of other Time Lords in the back of his mind, confirming that what he'd heard before about the other three 'Elementals' who'd survived had either been a lie or hadn't actually been referring to _Time Lords_ (Although what it _had _been referring to he still didn't know)-, and a greater awareness of his own role in this new universe created by his actions, he was finding himself more open to the possibilities of a… relationship… with another, so long as he could find the right kind of person… someone able to cope with what he encountered on a daily basis _without _him there to help them… someone who would be brilliant at helping people even if he wasn't there…

In the end, he'd been looking for someone who could stand on their own, and Martha represented that idea almost without trying. She'd stood up to the Plasmavore and the Carrionites, she'd saved the hovercar from the Macra, she'd seen through the Zygons, she'd saved him from the Clade…

"Heard the news?" a guard said as he walked by his 'tent', talking to one of the other guards (The Master occasionally had people check the conference room for bugs or anything like that, but to date none of them had ever paid him any attention; whether because they'd been ordered to ignore him or were simply afraid of the consequences of talking to the Master's 'pet prisoner', the Doctor didn't know and didn't care). "There's been rumour of Jones sightings in Japan."

"She made it to _Japan_?" the guard said, looking incredulously over at his associate. "Damn… the Master's not going to be happy about that; last I heard he was hoping to catch her while she was in India…"

Even as they left the conference room, the Doctor was still processing what he'd just heard.

_Martha was in Japan_…

They might be nearing the half-anniversary of the Master's conquest of Earth, but if Martha had made it to Japan…

Despite the fact that his condition still appeared grim, the Doctor couldn't help but smile at this latest turn of events; even when working completely on her own in a planet completely under the rule of a man who'd once tried to 'steal' the Lux Aeterna itself just to ensure his own survival, Martha could still manage to hold her own and survive.

That was what he loved about her, really; she always managed to come through-

The Doctor froze, only just realising what he'd just thought.

_He loved her_…

He loved Martha Jones.

He didn't know how it happened, he had no way of knowing when he'd started to care for her _that _much, he couldn't be certain how much seeing Rose as she was now had to do with anything…

But it didn't matter.

The precise chain of events that led to him feeling this way weren't important; all that mattered to him was that he had those feelings, and that was that.

After all the times he'd tried _not _to see her… all the times he'd compared her to her predecessor- something he hadn't even done to Jo despite the fact that there was far _more _reasons to be disappointed with her presence then; Liz had been a genius while Jo hadn't even passed her A-levels in science-… all the times he'd made her feel like she was nothing but a substitute…

For a moment, consumed by the pain and self-loathing that came with this new recognition, the Doctor clasped his head in his hands and cried.

It was only when he heard the sound of the door to the conference room opening that he remembered the video cameras that had been monitoring this room since he arrived… and, therefore, would have been aware of his 'breakdown'.

* * *

"What's this?" the Master asked, smirking down at the sight of his sobbing nemesis, a broad grin on his face as he stood over the Doctor's still form as he lay on the floor of his tent, the physically-younger Time Lord barely registering the presence of his wife beside him as he stared at his old friend. "Realised how much you've wasted your life yet?"

To his shock, as the Doctor looked up, even with tears visible in the corner of his eyes, it was with a smile on his face.

"I love her..." he whispered, an expression on his old face that somehow combined joy and sorrow. "I hurt her... I acted like I didn't see her... I wouldn't _let _myself see her... but I love her."

Before the Master could respond to that rather enigmatic statement, Rose stepped forward and crouched down beside the Doctor, a broad, reassuring smile on her face as she placed a hand on his cheek and turned his face to look at him.

"You're wrong, Doctor," she said, smiling warmly at the other Time Lord. "You never hurt me; I _always _knew that you saw me-"

"What?" the Doctor interjected, looking at Rose as though he'd only just registered that she was there (Not that the Master could blame him; even with the Doctor's compassion, being aged like that could _not _be good for the brain cells) before sighing slightly in frustration. "Rose… I wasn't talking about _you_."

The Master couldn't help but smile slightly at the stunned expression on Rose's face at that last comment; even without anyone actually saying it, the identity of the person the Doctor had to have been referring to if he wasn't talking about Rose was obvious.

"_Her_?" Rose yelled, stepping back to look at the Doctor with an expression that was somehow a combination of a glare and a shocked stare. "After everything I _did _for you-"

"Such as?" the Doctor countered, looking grimly at Rose.

Rose blinked.

"What?" she said, looking in confusion at the Doctor.

"In all our time together… did you _ever _try and do _anything_ for yourself?" the Doctor replied, staring weakly but resolutely at Rose; the Master barely managed to note the slight pain in the Doctor's eyes at what he was saying, the Doctor clearly regretting having to talk like this to his companion even as he apparently felt obligated to do so for some reason the Master couldn't work out. "I showed you everything… but you never _did _anything, did you?"

"Well, I…" Rose began, momentarily uncertain about what she could say- the Master stepped back slightly to better appreciate the scene; it wasn't often he got the chance to see the _Doctor _tell one of his precious humans how _useless _they were- before she spoke again. "I saved you from the Daleks-!"

"As the result of a paradoxical message… you sent to _yourself _after doing it," the Doctor interjected, shaking his head as he looked at Rose. "That doesn't count… you didn't take the _initiative _to save me… you just saw the message and took a chance; you didn't… do it on your _own_…"

"I could have come up with that idea _without _the Bad Wolf-" Rose began.

"Would you?" the Doctor asked, shaking his head slightly as he looked slightly sadly at Rose. "Rose…whenever I wasn't there… whenever you thought I was dead… even when I was just unconscious… you _gave up on me_."

For a moment, Rose could only stare at him, pain dominating her face as she stared at the man who was breaking her heart as politely- the Master couldn't understand the Doctor at times; even after the woman betrayed everything his old friend believed in, he was _still _trying to be _nice _to her- as he could, shaking her head in desperation.

"I didn't-" she began.

"You retreated to the TARDIS when the Sycorax came…" the Doctor gasped, weakly crawling out of his tent and rising to his feet as he stared at her (How he was able to stand in that condition the Master didn't know; he must be managing it through sheer force of will). "_Sarah _was the one who convinced me to reject the Krillitane's offer to crack the Skasis Paradigm… you spent hours waiting at the time window without even _trying _to go to the TARDIS…"

He paused for a moment, clearly fighting for breath as he glared at her, before he spoke once again, his eyes narrowed as he looked at her. "And… you wanted to _stay behind_… on the planet of the Beast…"

"I _believed _in you-" Rose tried to protest, tears filling her eyes.

"You didn't want to even _try_… and live without me," the Doctor corrected, shaking his head as he spoke. "If you _had _believed I'd escape… you should believe I could find you… but you wanted to _stay behind and die_… rather than try and live without me."

"Because I _love _you-" Rose tried to say once again.

"Because… you were _obsessed _with me," the Doctor corrected, before he lowered his head, his shoulders slumped in shame as he spoke his next words. "Just like I was obsessed with you…"

* * *

"No..." Rose insisted, shaking her head as she looked at the Doctor, her resolve suddenly seemingly strengthened by his last words, looking at him as though he'd just told her the sky was green and she was prepared to offer irrefutable proof to the contrary (The Doctor barely even registered the Master standing off to one side with a sadistic grin on his face at the sight before him; all that mattered right now was trying to get through Rose's madness). "You're not _obsessed _with me, Doctor; you _love_ me! Look at all the evidence; you knew when I was possessed by Cassandra, you wouldn't sacrifice me to save the world-"

"I should have been," the Doctor said simply.

Rose's eyes widened.

"I wouldn't have done it as a _first _choice…" the Doctor continued, holding up one hand as he glared at her for her initial assumption, moving the other hand to lean slightly on his tent to provide support, his legs still shaking slightly as he stared at the woman before him. "But I _can't_… put the fate of the planet… above the fate of a friend… just because there's a _chance_… that saving one… would doom the other…"

"You did that because you _loved _me-" Rose said, trying to smile at the Doctor even as the pain in her eyes was clear to anyone watching.

"I did it… because I met you in a vulnerable moment… and _latched_ on to you… without realising it," the Doctor countered, shaking his head in a mixture of sorrow and self-loathing as he looked back at Rose. "I destroyed my entire _planet_… because the alternative was unthinkable, Rose; I _cannot_… be willing to put the life of _one _person… above the larger issues… if there's _no _other choice…"

"But you did that for _me_," Rose said, seemingly forcing back her tears as she assumed an almost pitying expression as she looked at the Doctor, almost as though she believed that _he _was the one who needed help rather than her. "You wouldn't destroy Downing Street because it might have endangered me, you sent me back to Earth to protect me from the Dalek invasion-"

"Rose, will you just get the picture here; I was _traumatised_!" the Doctor yelled, wishing he could summon the energy to make his voice louder; how could Rose believe that he loved _her _more than he'd loved his own home _planet_ (He might not have always agreed with his peoples' attitude towards the rest of the universe but that didn't mean he'd _hated _them)? "I'd only just regenerated into the big-eared git a few _hours _before I met you… and I'd only even remembered what had happened to me a matter of _minutes _before that... with all those memories of what I'd lost having been dumped back into my mind without warning, I was _looking _for a reason to care about something again; you were just _convenient_!"

For a moment the two former travelling companions continued to stare at each other, the Master continuing to silently smile off to the side at the confrontation, before the Doctor spoke again.

"I don't _love _you…" he explained, his tone expressing his sorrow as he looked at Rose. "I _fixated _on you because I wanted to have something to love again… something I _could _save… something that would never leave me…"

"But… but I _love_ you…" Rose said, her voice weak as she looked at the Doctor.

The Doctor sighed once again, raising his head to fix his eyes on Rose's as he spoke, praying that this would get through to her even if nothing else had managed to do the job so far.

"You don't love _me_, Rose," he said, staring resolutely at her (He wished he could manage a more intense stare; if he ever needed a reason to be grateful for his lifestyle, it was the knowledge that none of his bodies would ever have to deal with old age as the cause of death again). "You were tired of your life, and you… latched on to me as an incredible means of escaping it…" (He briefly thought about mentioning his theory that she was looking for a strong male figure after the death of her father, but pushed that aside; not only was that little more than a theory, but it pushed him into territory that he did _not _want to explore). "We were both two lonely, messed-up people… who selected each other as an escape… from a reality we couldn't cope with…"

"_Shut UP_!" Rose yelled, tears of rage and pain on her face as she slapped the Doctor, the force of the blow- combined with his current physical frailty- sending him falling to the floor once more. "_You love ME_! _Not Martha BLOODY Jones, _ME!"

For a moment, as the Doctor looked at Rose, his cheek smarting from her blow he was reminded of a poem of William Blake's he'd read shortly after that incident with the Seven Planets in his seventh incarnation (He'd been looking for something to keep his mind consciously occupied while he subconsciously worked to purge the TARDIS of that virus; Blake's poetry had seemed the logical choice given the man's involvement in events);

_A__ flower was offered to me,  
Such a flower as May never bore;  
But I said, 'I've a pretty rose tree,'  
And I passed the sweet flower o'er._

_Then I went to my pretty rose tree,  
To tend her by day and by night;  
But my rose turned away with jealousy,  
And her thorns were my only delight_

In many ways, as he looked at Rose right now, the Doctor couldn't help but reflect on how appropriate it was to this situation.

All that time he'd spent pushing Martha away because he'd thought, on some level, that Rose's 'love' would always be enough for him…

Now, here he was, with Martha somewhere in Japan, hundreds of miles away from him- and _God_, hundred of miles had _never _seemed so far-, and all he had to 'comfort' him was a woman who slapped him while proclaiming that she loved him…

Even if it hadn't hurt that much, it didn't change the fact that she'd resorted to physical violence to settle an argument; if Rose had ever truly loved him, she would know that he would _never _countenance that.

"_Fine_," Rose said at last, practically spitting in his face as she stepped back from where he now lay on the ground. "Have it _your _way."

The Doctor almost wasn't surprised at the cold glare in Rose's eyes when he looked up at her; after her last 'tantrum'- how had she become so emotionally pathetic and so ruthless at the same time-, the only thing that occupied his mind now was concern over far she'd go in the name of her 'love' for him.

"If you think sacrifice is acceptable, let's give Martha a chance to sacrifice _herself_ for a 'greater good'," the former shop girl said, turning to look over at the Master. "Can we send the Toclafane en masse to Japan?"

The Doctor's eyes widened in horror.

"What?" he said, looking in shock at his old companion; surely Rose couldn't be planning what she _sounded _like she was planning… could she? "_Why_…?"

"Well, once she's gone we won't need to keep sending out Toclafane to find her, will we?" Rose said, smiling grimly at the Doctor. "We know where she is, and it's in an easily-contained area; even if we can't _find _her specifically, all the Toclafane have to do is destroy the island- as well as anyone trying to leave it- and that's that. With her gone, we can dedicate ourselves to the task of rebuilding the Time Lord Empire in its true glory without having to worry about _her_ messing things up."

"She's no _threat _to you…" the Doctor said, his voice practically a growl even as his hearts felt like they were constricting in panic (Rassilon, he hoped he wasn't about to have another hearts attack; in this condition that might just trigger a regeneration, and he had few enough of those left _already_ without losing another one to his own body's current weakness).

"She gives you hope that the old way will work," Rose said, shaking her head as she looked back at the Doctor, her gaze cold. "_That_ makes her a threat."

"_Excellent _point, my dear," the Master said, smiling broadly at Rose as he leaned in to kiss her, the resulting lip-lock looked more like they were trying to make a meal out of each other's mouths from the Doctor's perspective…

And, despite the fact that this was the first time he'd _really _seen them kissing, the Doctor wasn't shocked at the sight.

Maybe- although it was a very _big_ maybe- he would have cried out in horror if it had taken place before his image of Rose had been destroyed like it had been over the last few months, but now…

Even with the memory of what she'd once been to him- what he'd thought she could have _come _to mean to him-, he couldn't make himself care.

"What are you looking so upset about?" Rose asked, looking over at him with a cold, ruthless smirk that he'd never seen her face assume even when she was being possessed by Cassandra. "After all, you just said yourself that you have to be willing to make sacrifices in the name of the 'greater good'; now Martha gets to give her life so that the Time Lords can be reborn once more."

"Too bad you can't see her before it happens, of course," the Master said, shrugging nonchalantly as he stepped back and indicated the control that would allow Rose to contact the Toclafane; the Master's commands to the spheres were generally a combination of verbal order and mental transmission, but he'd included a more human 'interface' in case he needed it.

Right now, though, the Doctor didn't care about the Master's further attempts to demoralise him.

Even as the Master stepped aside to allow Rose to address the microphone, some of the Master's last words filled the Doctor's mind.

_See her_…

He had to see Martha.

Even if she survived this attack on Japan- and she _would _survive it; no other possible outcome as far as the Doctor was concerned-, she'd need someone to be there for her before she was in any kind of state to continue her journey…

And, in the current situation, there was only one way for the Doctor to ensure that she would have that someone.

Even as Rose spoke the words that would send the Toclafane hurtling towards Japan- the knowledge of what was about to happen leaving a deep pain in the Doctor's hearts; he'd spent some interesting times in that country over the centuries, even if some of them hadn't been too pleasant-, the Doctor had crawled back into his tent, closed his eyes and focused his attention outwards, taking advantage of the fragile connections he'd already forged with the Archangel Network to find the mind he sought…

The Master would never even consider attempting what he was about to do, but that was only due to his disgust at the idea of entering a human's mind- hypnosis simply imposed his will over the subject; his low opinion of humanity would have stopped him from even _thinking _of trying something that would force him to look more closely at their 'degenerate' minds- rather than out of the practicality of it (Although the length of time it had taken the Doctor to 'tune in' to the network on this scale would have probably turned the Master off attempting this as well; current efforts aside, the Master had never been a particularly patient man).

So long as the Doctor remembered his old lessons with the Mind Monk of Darron right- it had been a long time since he'd needed to use these skills, but some things stuck with you-, this idea _should _do the job…

* * *

AN 2: To answer the most obvious question, Grace was essentially the Eighth Doctor's first companion, helping him regain his memories after his traumatic regeneration (Which she unintentionally caused; she was a heart surgeon who operated on the Seventh Doctor in the belief that he was ill but killed him due to her inexperience with Gallifreyian physiology) and even kissing him before declining the offer to travel with him, Debbie was a schoolteacher who may have dated the Doctor in the eighties during his century-long amnesic exile on Earth after he adopted one of her students (A story that can be found in the novel "Father Time"), and Scarlette was an eighteenth-century courtesean with some sorceress abilities who, having essentially 'inherited' some Time Lord knowledge after the destruction of Gallifrey in the form of arcane rituals, married the Doctor in a symbolic ceremony to bind him to Earth and allow him to participate in its conflict with a race of other-dimensional apes (Due to the loss of Gallifrey he no longer had a real 'right' to interfere in the universe on that kind of scale until the marriage linked him to Earth; a complicated story that is narrated in "The Adventuress of Henrietta Street", which also introduced the mysterious Sabbath)

AN 3: The Doctor's comment about reading Blake's poetry to consciously distract himself refers to this storyline in the early Virgin New Adventures when the TARDIS was infected with a 'demonic' 'virus'; due to the Doctor's telepathic link to the TARDIS, the virus always knew when the Doctor tried to get rid of it, so he had to program the TARDIS- without consciously thinking about it- to transfer the secondary console room into the TARDIS Zero Room- a room cut off from the rest of the universe- to prevent the virus from reading his mind until he could purge it from the TARDIS; in the book before he managed to remove the virus the Doctor met Blake while investigating a dimension rift


	21. Remembrance of the Doctors

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: This chapter take place almost IMMEDIATELY after the last chapter, looking at Martha after she's escaped the Toclafane slaughter of Japan

Broken Faith

As the brilliant blue of the Time Vortex faded from around her, leaving her alone on a deserted beach that should be the outskirts of America- assuming that she'd entered the coordinates correctly-, Martha fell to the ground and threw up, her body continuing to violently reject the food she had eaten until there was nothing more than dry heaves left.

God… she'd witnessed Lazarus feeding on people and thought that would be bad enough, but what the Toclafane had done…

She nearly felt like throwing up again at the memory even as her stomach reminded her that she didn't have anything left to lose.

She didn't know how it had gone so wrong so fast. One minute she was sitting in a building with a couple of local sailors, plotting the best location to land in Australia without the Master's forces spotting her, and the next she'd found herself running for her life as the Toclafane blasted away at everything around her, whole buildings collapsing under their laser weapons while their blades sliced and tore at everyone who survived that attack. She'd barely managed to escape by activating the vortex manipulator at the last minute- remembering what Jack had done to enter the coordinates for the _Valiant_ into the machine and modifying them to aim for Australia-, but now that she was here…

She just couldn't _cope_!

Why hadn't the Doctor asked _Jack _to do this; why did it have to be _her_? Even if she didn't fully understand what a 'Time Agent' actually _did_, Jack could probably cope with this whole mess in his _sleep _after everything he'd seen while waiting for the Doctor even without his immortality; he had _training _in coping with this kind of situation.

She…

She was nothing… she was just a medical student who'd stumbled into something bigger than she could ever hope to be…

She was meant to be worrying about passing her exam; she couldn't _cope _with this kind of shit (And she'd just sworn; she must _really _be getting frustrated)!

It wasn't like she hadn't screwed up enough when dealing with the Family of Blood by losing the watch- to say nothing of the Doctor nearly sacrificing himself to the Clade just to save _her_-, she was the only reason the Master was even _active_ in the first place! If she'd just _waited _to draw Yana's attention to the watch when the Doctor was present, maybe he would have been able to stop the Master getting out…

God, it was no _wonder _the Doctor had preferred Rose over her; Rose had single-handedly ended the Time War- even if the Daleks had shown up again in New York, she must have still dealt them a pretty decisive blow based on what the Doctor had mentioned while explaining Jack's condition to him- _and _brought Jack back to life (Albeit before she went and _married _the Doctor's oldest enemy), while the only thing Martha had managed to do was set the stage for Earth to be conquered by a homicidal maniac with delusions of grandeur and superiority that didn't even have the decency to be complete delusions…

She couldn't do this.

She _couldn't_…

She'd failed her planet, she'd failed her family, she'd failed the _Doctor_…

Somehow, that last one hurt the most; the man who'd saved humanity for so many centuries, the one man to whom possibly the whole _universe _owed a debt to at some point or another, had counted on _her _to save the world…

And she'd failed him.

With that thought dominant in her mind, Martha Jones fell to the ground, barely even registering the presence of backpack that she still carried- containing the fake 'gun' she'd developed with Professor Chesterton's assistance to provide her 'cover story'- pressing against the back of her head as she curled up in a ball and began to cry.

* * *

Martha wasn't sure how long she'd lain on the ground sobbing before she heard the faint sound of footsteps approaching her, but even when she registered them she couldn't bring herself to care.

She'd already failed the Doctor; it would probably be better if whoever this was just killed her now rather than letting her live with the knowledge that she'd failed the man she-

_NO_!

She couldn't think… _that_; she was in too much pain as it was…

"Come come, my dear," a voice said, its tone soft and comforting as opposed to the harshness she'd been expecting. "This isn't going to help anyone; let me help you up."

Looking up, Martha could only stare in confusion at the sight of an old man with white hair standing over her, dressed in a dark jack and brown trousers that seemed vaguely Victorian in appearance, one hand outstretched towards her with a slight smile on his face while he held a walking-stick in the other.

What was an old man doing alone on an Australian beach at a time like this…?

Then she looked closer at the older man's eyes, sparkling with a certain combination of enthusiasm, knowledge and compassion that she'd only seen before in one other man, and inspiration struck.

It couldn't be…

Then again, hadn't Mrs Jackson and Professor Chesterton said that the Doctor had been an old man when they began travelling with him?

"Doctor…?" she whispered, her eyes wide as she took the offered hand.

"Quite," the old man replied, nodding at her with a slight smile as he helped her to her feet with an ease that belied his physical age (And even his chronological age; if the Master had needed to forcibly age the current Doctor a hundred years before he reached old age, how old would _this _Doctor have to be to have reached this state _naturally_?). "The original, you might say."

Martha's eyes widened in shock at the implications of that last statement.

_The original_…

"You're… you're the _First _Doctor?" she said, instantly wishing she could take it back; it sounded so stupid when she phrased it like that, to call him the 'first' Doctor like he was a make of car rather than his own person…

"I am," the man said, smiling at her with a warm expression that reminded Martha vaguely of her grandfather- and _God_, she couldn't quite get her head around that; even knowing that he was centuries old, the idea of the Doctor as a _grandfather _was something she still had trouble getting her head around- while still retaining a certain essential 'Doctorishness'. "Or, at least, I am the _idea _of him…"

Martha blinked in confusion.

"Wh… what?" she said, looking uncertainly at the man before her.

"I am not actually here in the sense that _I _am here, Miss Jones," the old man- she couldn't quite think of him as 'the Doctor'; she acknowledged that he was the same person underneath, but in the end he was no more the Doctor she… cared for… than she was still the little girl she'd been when she first decided to become a doctor after breaking her arm- replied, smiling at her in a manner that was probably intended to be comforting even if the effect of it was dimmed by her current confusion. "I am… well, to begin at the beginning, we are within your dream."

Martha blinked.

"My… my _dream_? " she repeated, looking in increasing perplexity at the old man in front of her before another thought occurred to her. "Oh God… I've lost it, haven't I?"

"Oh no, my dear girl, you aren't mad," the old man said, smiling reassuringly at her. "I- we- have simply taken advantage of the telepathic field created by the Archangel Network- a tragic abuse of such an exceptional concept, really; it could have done so much good if used properly- to reach out to you and allow us to talk with you."

Martha wished she could stop herself from showing the confusion that she knew was now evident on her face, but the old man clearly understood without her needing to ask in the first place. "You are, of course, aware that we are telepathic?"

"Yeah…" Martha said, nodding uncertainly even as the memory of the Doctor accessing Peter Streete's mind just by touching his head and concentrating.

"Well," the old man said, shrugging casually as he smiled at her, "with the telepathic field created by the Archangel Network creating a link between the entirety of the human race, it is thus far easier for the current version of us- particularly with us having spent the last few months working on tuning himself into the network- to use it to find your… 'brain pattern', if you will; since you have spent so long within the TARDIS, we are familiar with your mind's… presence, if you will."

"Right…" Martha said, nodding slightly uncertainly as she looked at the old man, hoping he wouldn't take what she was about to say the wrong way. "And… _you're _here because…?"

"Oh, his conscious mind is simply otherwise occupied by maintaining this connection in the first place; with the personality you know thus occupied, it was decided that we would come in his place to speak with you," the old man said, before he turned around to glance behind himself with a slight smile. "Ah, and here come the rest of me."

Glancing behind the old man, Martha's eyes widened as she saw eight other figures begin to fade into existence, many of them smiling at her with a warmth that she'd sometimes wished she'd receive from 'her' Doctor- she wished she could come up with a better term; it sounded so _possessive_- while a couple of others looked slightly uncomfortable at their presence here, seemingly making an effort to look everywhere but at each other.

As they moved into view, Martha couldn't help but be amazed at the sheer diversity of people spread out before here. Apart from the old man, there was a short man dressed in clothing that seemed to be a couple of sizes too big for him with a haircut that reminded her of the stereotypical Beatles style, an older man in a blue velvet jacket and a frilly shirt- the ensemble reminded her vaguely of Austin Powers, except that this man actually made it look smart rather than stupid- with a well-furrowed face and thick white hair close behind him. To the velvet-clad man's right came a tall figure with thick brown curls wearing a long dark coat and a massive scarf that Martha was certain she'd seen in the TARDIS wardrobe, the next arrival wearing a cricket jumper and a beige, red-lined three-quarter-length coat with a stick of celery pinned to one lapel. The man next to the cricketer was a large man- both in terms of height _and _weight- with long curly blond hair and a patchwork coat made of various assorted fabrics that seemed to have been stuck together completely at random, the rest of his clothing- including an equally vivid waistcoat and yellow-and-black-striped trousers- so flamboyant that Martha almost missed the short man in the brown suit and blood-red waistcoat following him, an umbrella with a thick red question-mark handle in his hand and a straw hat on his head. Following the short man- Martha hated to sound shallow, but this new one was probably the best-looking one yet- was a young man with long brown hair dressed in a green velvet coat and cream-coloured trousers and waistcoat, who smiled warmly at her when he saw her. The last figure- who Martha noted hung slightly back from the others even as they all gathered around her- was a tall man with big ears and short hair- the shortest hair of any of the Doctors present, she noted- dressed simply in a battered leather jacket and a dark jumper and trousers.

For a moment, Martha simply stared in silence, the Doctors clearly waiting for her to be comfortable with the current situation, before she finally spoke.

"You're… _all _the Doctor?" she said at last, staring with wide eyes at the assortment of people around her.

Even after seeing the drastic difference between Professor Yana and Mr Saxon, she'd partly assumed that the radical difference between them was mainly due to their different physical ages rather than anything else; looking at the nine men before her, man of them looking rather close to those around them in terms of age- the one in the cricket outfit seemed to be the youngest man here-, it was almost impossible to believe they were all the same man…

Then she looked into the eyes of the men gathered before her- each one reflecting the same intellectual and emotional depth that she'd recognised in the old man from all that time she'd spent gazing into the Doctor's eyes as he explained some new alien or piece of technology to-, and knew that she was right.

It was almost unbelievable even to Martha; here she was, facing nine different men of vastly different physical appearance- to say nothing of personality; the cricketer seemed slightly shy while the one with the Beatle-style haircut was grinning broadly at her and the one in the leather jacket hung around at the back-, and she could _still _see something of 'her' Doctor in all of them…

"Not only _were _we the Doctor, Miss Jones; in a sense, we remain him to this day," the one in the bad coat explained, looking over at her with a confident smile. "We all represent… _parts _of him, if you will; each one of us serves as the personification of a certain aspect of the personality of the Doctor you know. While the old buzzard over there," (Glancing over at the 'old buzzard', Martha couldn't help but smile slightly at his indignant glare) "represents his intellect, I," (Martha's smile grew broader at the sight of the older- she knew consciously that he was younger than the Doctor she knew, but he looked physically older- Doctor straightening up slightly as he spoke, assuming an attitude that reminded her of some of her more pompous lecturers), "represent the part of us that grants me the strength and resolve to take action when all is lost, the part of us that knows that we can accomplish anything once we put our minds to it, the part of us that-"

"Basically, he's our ego," the Beatles-style fellow said, shrugging apologetically at Martha even as the other Doctor turned to stare indignantly at his other self. "You'll have to forgive him; when he first got here he didn't get out much, so he tends to talk like anything when he gets the chance."

Martha wasn't sure if that was meant to comfort her or apologise for the other Doctor's attitude; quite frankly, this whole situation was getting far stranger than anything she'd experienced so far, and she'd thought the living sun would be the peak of strange encounters in her time in the TARDIS…

"OK… so… you're his ego…" she said, nodding briefly at the man in the multicoloured coat before she turned to look at the Beatle-esque Doctor. "And… you'd be his…?"

"Essentially, I'm his sense of humour," the little man replied, shrugging slightly as he looked down at himself before glancing up at her. "It's the Chaplin similarities, if you ask me; everyone _always _thinks of me as the comedian version of us…"

"Don't mind him, he's always a bit short like that-" the man with the frilly shirt began, in an exasperated tone that suggested he was used to doing this in matters relating to the shorter man.

"Do you _mind_?" the little man said, glaring over at the speaker with a furrowed brow. "Just because you were one of the more athletic-"

"I _happen _to represent his technical expertise these days; the fact that I was one of the better ones of us when it came to hand-to-hand-" the white-haired figure retaliated.

"Can we _please _calm down over there?" the blond man in the cricket outfit asked, looking over at the other two Doctors with a frustrated gaze that suggested to Martha that he was used to acting as the mediator in these situations. "We _do _have company, you know…"

"Uh… yes, right, of course; I apologise about that, my dear," the shorter Doctor said, looking apologetically over at her.

"We both are," the white-haired Doctor said, reaching over to place an apologetic hand on Martha's shoulder. "It's always a bit difficult when we're all in the same place; even in here, we all can't resist showing off a bit for the rest of us…"

"Uh… right," Martha said, nodding slightly awkwardly at the man before her before she stared above her at whatever passed for the sky in this place (Wasn't there some technical term for a place where minds met; the 'astral plane' or something…?). "This is… _insane_…"

"Of course it's insane," the little man with the Scottish accent said, smiling at her in a casual manner. "Anybody remotely interesting is mad in some way; why should we be the exception?"

Despite the situation, Martha couldn't help but smile slightly at the Scottish man's last comment; she couldn't quite explain it, but there was something about that one she found rather comforting in his way, his face evoking an unusual combination of favoured uncle and teacher in one, despite the solemn shadow lurking in his eyes that wasn't visible in the eyes of the other Doctors…

"And… what are you?" she asked the Scottish Doctor uncertainly, hoping she didn't sound rude.

"Tactical expertise, really; I'm the part of him that came up with the plan you're helping us in right now, among other things," the Scottish man replied, smiling at her once again. "And I must congratulate you on your progress, on that topic; you've only been travelling for just over five months and you've already reached Australia-"

"Although, of course, we acknowledge that you hardly wanted to get this far under _these _circumstances," the cricketer added, looking scathingly over at the Scottish Doctor for a moment before he turned back to Martha. "I apologise about him; I sometimes think that they feel they don't have to worry about what they say because _I'm _the one who serves as the conscience…"

"Well, we all have our burdens to bear, Doctor; it's never easy for us to do what we're here to do," the man in the scarf said, smiling reassuringly at his other self- Martha suddenly wished she knew what order these Doctors were in; she knew that the old man was the 'original' Doctor, and from what she'd heard from Mrs Jackson the little man with the Beatles-style haircut and the large clothing was probably the second, but anything else would have been primarily guesswork- before he glanced at Martha. "After all, I'm representing his enthusiasm for _everything_ he's enthusiastic about; the way he is these days, that's a fairly full-time job."

"Uh… I know what you mean," Martha said at last, unable to stop a slight smile crossing her face at the memory of some of 'her' Doctor's old speeches- this was the man who could make equally passionate speeches about humanity's ability to survive to the end of the universe and his appreciation for the 'nibbles' at Lazarus's party-, before her gaze fixed on the short-haired man in the leather jacket, still slightly hanging back from the other Doctors.

"And… what about him?" she asked, indicating the man in question, curious about his more withdrawn nature compared to the others. "What does he represent?"

"He's… complicated," the short man with the umbrella said at last after the Doctors looked uncomfortably, the Doctor with the Scottish accent exchanging another brief, slightly uncomfortable look with the Doctor in the multi-coloured coat that Martha couldn't quite make out before he looked back at her. "We recently realised that he made some… well, 'mistakes' is the best term we can come up with, really… in his time 'in charge', and…"

"Well, to put it simply, we're having trouble working out how we feel about them and what they say about him as one of us," the one in the Austin-like clothes said, shrugging slightly as he looked at Martha. "We're not _blaming _him for the mistakes, of course- we learned our lesson about doing that during the Scottish fellow's time in charge; we're all the Doctor, and we have to learn from _all _our mistakes, even the ones we made in other bodies-, but we just… _can't_ work out what to think of him as."

"Oh," Martha said, briefly wondering what that meant before deciding that she didn't have the right to ask; if it was something that was enough of an issue to leave the Doctor as troubled as he currently appeared to be, she was fairly certain that he'd prefer not to discuss it unless he had to.

That question answered, she turned to look uncertainly at the only remaining as-yet-unidentified Doctor. "And… you are?"

"I'm… our responsibility," the man with the long brown hair said, sighing slightly as he looked around at the others.

"By which he means that he personifies the part of us that accepts the responsibilities and burdens that we must endure if we are to consider ourselves the Doctor," the old man explained, noting Martha's uncertain expression. "He taught them to me long ago- an interesting little paradox, really; remind us to tell you about it when this is all over-, and the events of his life made it all the more appropriate that he take this role onto himself now that he has become part of the persona."

For a moment Martha wondered what the old man meant by that, and then an explanation came to her.

The Doctor who accepted the responsibilities of being the Doctor…

And he _did _match Anji's description of the Doctor she'd travelled with; given everything Anji had told her about the Doctor having had an 'accident' before he met her that had erased his memory and left the TARDIS so badly damaged it had taken a century to recover…

"You… you're the one who fought in the Time War, aren't you?" she asked, looking uncertainly at the Doctor before her.

The younger Doctor nodded solemnly.

"I was the one who made… that call, yes," he said at last; Martha immediately regretted bringing up a topic that he was unquestionably uncomfortable talking about, but the Doctor before her still seemed willing to continue discussing the matter regardless of his personal feelings. "If there had been any alternative, I would have taken it… but with Gallifrey having practically fallen already, and my people seemingly destined to face a prolonged war across time and space that all evidence suggested we'd lose anyway…"

He sighed. "I had to do it."

Martha's heart went out to the tortured man before her; how could the Doctor _cope _with that kind of responsibility?

"Because I chose to," the Doctor said, looking up at Martha as though he'd heard her thoughts (Which, given their environment, now that Martha thought about it, was probably accurate).

"You know…" he continued, staring upwards as the other Doctors stepped back slightly, apparently recognising that the current speaker needed some space, "Someone once asked me why I do what I do when there is so much evidence to support the idea that humanity is basically a mass of idiots who would blow themselves up in a matter of seconds and seem to delight in finding new ways of killing each other every other week."

"And… what did you tell him?" Martha asked, wondering why the Doctor would tell her something like that.

"Because, in the end, _none _of me want to accept that things are that way," the Doctor replied, as he looked resolutely over at her. "Injustice is the rule, but I want justice. Suffering is the rule, but I want to end it. Despair accords with reality, but I insist on hope. I don't accept it because it is _unacceptable_."

Looking at her, the Byron-esque Doctor smiled. "And that's why you're doing this, isn't it? Because you recognise that, no matter how hard it is, someone has to stand up to the Master… because the alternative is simply unthinkable."

Looking at the Doctors gathered before her, Martha knew, as clearly as if they'd said it out loud, that they had finished with the 'introductions' and were now getting down to the real reason they'd come here; to make sure she didn't give up.

She just wished she could feel like she deserved it…

"I… well, I knew I couldn't do anything on the _Valiant_…" she said as she looked uncertainly around at the various Doctors gathered before her, suddenly feeling inadequate in the face of these men who had each done so much with their lives, "and… well, you told me about your plan, I couldn't get to anyone else without the Master shooting me…"

"And you'll do it," the man in the bad coat said, nodding at her as though his word was all she needed.

In some ways, it was that simple certainty that did it for Martha.

"But… I _can't_!" she yelled, looking in frustration at the Doctors before her. "I'm not_ like_ you, don't you _get_ that? I can't just go around the planet, pass on this message, and_ never_ look back at what's happening-"

"Just because we don't _look_ back doesn't mean we don't _care_, Martha," the cricketer said, walking over to look sympathetically at her. "We might not always show it- some of us are a lot _better_ at that side of things than others-, but we do care about everyone we meet; just because we don't always show it at times-"

"God, I_ know_ you _care_, Doctor; I'm not saying you _don't_!" Martha yelled, looking at the young man before her in frustration. "I'm saying that I can't just… I just can't keep this up! I'm not a _hero_; I'm just the girl who ran into you in the hospital-"

"And we allowed you to hear our second heart," the Scottish Doctor put in, looking slightly solemnly at her as she turned to look at him, evidently perplexed at his addition to the conversation.

"Didn't it ever occur to you, Doctor Jones," the velvet-clad Doctor with white hair continued- Martha didn't bother correcting him on her title-, "that if we had allowed anyone to hear that heart when we were initially admitted to the hospital, we'd have either been turned away as a freak or attracted a lot more attention as the result of us being a medical curiosity? Allowing you to hear our other heart was a conscious choice… and we made that choice because we knew that we could trust you."

Martha paused.

"R… really?" she said at last, looking uncertainly at the Doctors before her.

After so long thinking that the Doctor had never seen her as anything other than a replacement, the knowledge that he'd trusted her enough on meeting her for the first time to _allow_ her to hear his second heart…

"Y'know," the silent Doctor said as he looked at her, cutting off another line of thought before it could get started, "I never even told Rose about our second heart until she heard about it after I was subjected to this body-scanner thing by some alien enthusiast in 2012 and the staff ended up asking me about it when we were leaving after… one of the exhibits activated; she just knew I was alien without having anything specific, and I only even told her what _species_ I was after an argument about it on our second trip."

"Oh…" Martha said, once again wishing that she didn't feel as proud about that as she did; the idea that the Doctor had so casually mentioned something to her when he'd concealed it from Rose was… nice… but given what she'd seen of this Doctor- apparently the one that Rose had travelled with originally-, who was to say that her Doctor wouldn't have mentioned those details to Rose sooner than this version of himself would have done in the same situation?

"The point is," the one in the scarf said, looking over at Martha with a reassuring smile, "we chose to share those details with you because we trusted you… just as we trust you to achieve the task we gave you now."

"But… but I _can't!"_ Martha protested weakly, looking tearfully at the Doctors around her; she wished she could be stronger, but after everything she'd witnessed since she began this nightmarish journey it was just too much to stop herself. "I'm not a hero! I'm not a Time Lord, I'm not even a Time _Agent_; I'm just the girl who spoke to you when the Judoon arrived! I'm… I'm scared…"

For a moment there was silence as she lay on the ground, sobbing once again, momentarily overwhelmed by the emotions she was current feeling, until she felt a comforting hand on her shoulder, prompting her to look up into the eyes of the white-haired Doctor in velvet, looking at her with a comforting smile.

"Courage isn't just a matter of not being frightened, you know," he said, smiling slightly at her. "It's being frightened and doing what you have to do anyway."

"He's right, you know," the cricketer said, smiling at her himself. "I'd say brave heart, but I think you have one already; you've certainly proven that you possess one so far."

"We believe in you, Martha Jones," the Byron-esque Doctor said reassuringly, reaching over to place a comforting hand on her shoulder as she looked at him. "All you have to do is believe in yourself."

For a moment, Martha simply sat in silence, looking contemplatively at the people around her, before she finally voiced the one thing she really wanted to know.

"If you always believed in me…" she said, trying to hold back her tears as she looked at the assorted Doctors before her, "why did you never _act _like it?"

Once again, there was silence, the Doctors exchanging uncomfortable glances, before one of them spoke once again.

"We… cannot answer that, my dear," the old man said at last, shaking his head apologetically.

"_But_," the man in the scarf added, smiling slightly at her, "if we combine our mental energies to allow us to take over from him for a few moments, I _think _we can provide you with someone who _can _answer that question to your satisfaction."

Before Martha could ask what he meant by that, all nine Doctors closed their eyes and concentrated for a moment, before they were all apparently 'consumed' by a brilliant white light, forcing Martha to close her eyes at the intensity of it.

When the light faded and Martha opened her eyes, it was to see the Doctor- 'her' Doctor- stood alone in front of her, albeit now dressed in a strange amalgamation of his other selves' clothing; umbrella in one hand, walking-stick in the other, scarf wrapped around his neck, stick of celery pinned to the lapel of a multi-coloured coat, a frilled shirt over a cream-coloured waistcoat and a lopsided bow tie, and dark trousers.

"Huh," he said, glancing down at his clothing thoughtfully. "Wasn't expecting _that_; must be because the shift's a bit unstable…"

He shrugged slightly, evidently concluding that it wasn't important, as he turned to look at Martha. "Anyway, Martha… you think I never saw you?"

Before Martha could reply, the Doctor had already stepped forward to lightly caress her cheek with his thumb, tilting her head back to smile at her as he brushed away a tear that Martha hadn't even realised was trickling from her eye, momentarily overcome by this show of tenderness from the man who'd so often trampled over her feelings without ever appearing to notice what he was doing.

"Martha Jones…" he said, his tone solemn as he stared at her, reflecting a depth and sincerity that she'd never seen him show to her, "sometimes you amazed and terrified me so much, it took everything I had _not _to look at you."

Before Martha had time to wonder what the Doctor meant by that, he was leaning towards her, his eyes slightly closing as he did so, Martha momentarily stunned into silence by what was happening…

* * *

Then she opened her eyes and found herself back on the beach where she had been when she fell asleep- as she presumed she must have done before the old man first appeared to her-, alone on the Australian coast once again.

For a moment, as Martha sat up, she wondered if that impossible 'encounter' had all been a dream…

Then she looked down at the key that hung around her neck- the key that now stopped anyone from seeing her unless they wanted to-, and re-evaluated her original thoughts; unlikely it might be that the Doctor she knew would say all… _that_… to her, after everything that she'd seen and witnessed since joining the Doctor in the TARDIS, the idea that the 'dream-message' she'd just received was real was far from impossible.

She'd need to ask the next old companion she met what 'their' Doctor had looked like- the more she travelled the more likely it seemed to her that she'd encounter another old companion; the Doctor really had encountered a surprising amount of people-, but until further notice she'd assume that what she'd experienced with those other nine Doctors had 'really' happened.

She just wished she could believe that the _last _part of the dream had been real…

* * *

AN 2: For those wondering where the idea for this chapter came from, it was partly inspired by the novel "Timewyrm: Revelations", where the Seventh Doctor and Ace battled the Timewyrm- a legendary time monster- in the Doctor's mind, aided by the Doctor's 'memories' of his previous incarnations. The comment about the Sixth Doctor 'not getting out much' when he first arrived was due to the fact that, initially after his regeneration, the Seventh Doctor's memory of his sixth self became increasingly twisted due to the Seventh Doctor's own guilt and self-loathing over the actions he committed in this incarnation- such as destroying an entire alternate timeline where the Silurians killed the Third Doctor ("Blood Heat")- combined with his increasingly negative opinion of his past self (For various reasons connected to the Sixth Doctor's methods and attitude) to make the Sixth Doctor a more twisted, darker version of himself, hating his seventh self- to the extent that he once attempted to kill the other Doctor after a dimensional rift gave him the energy to physically manifest- before the Seventh Doctor learned to forgive himself after a near-death experience forced him to recognise that he was the Doctor in all his incarnations (Hence why none of the Doctors are _that _angry at the Ninth for 'latching on' to Rose after his regeneration despite the mess it's left them in; after what the Sixth Doctor nearly became when they started blaming him for his actions in that incarnation, they're not going to repeat that mistake)


	22. The Doctor and the Mother

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: This chapter takes place around a month after the last one, returning to the Doctor as he waits in the _Valiant_

AN 2: Not entirely happy with this chapter, but I felt it had to be written; consider it more of a filler if it's anything

Broken Faith

As the Doctor sat in his tent, picking slowly at the small 'bowl' of food that was all he was given to sustain himself- three meals a day might be more than most people were getting down on Earth these days, but it didn't exactly count when they consisted of some kind of slop that resembled something he'd encountered on his time in some of the universe's bleakest 'concentration camps'-, he barely even bothered to glance up to see who was there; given the slow pace of the new arrival's steps, she was almost certainly just the current cleaner, and most of the people the Master hired for _that _job were so broken and terrified that they didn't bother even trying to talk to him that much.

It was only when he glanced up from his tent to look for somewhere to put his now-empty bowl of… slop… that he recognised who was standing before him, looking tearfully down at him.

"Francine…" he said, instinctively preparing himself for a slap even if the tearful woman standing before him didn't look like she was going to attack him; after the bad luck he'd had regarding his meetings with mothers in his last two lives, he was starting to wonder if this was fate's way of 'punishing' him for his old nonchalance about how his companions' families might feel about their disappearances.

"Doctor…" Martha's mother replied, her voice weak as she looked sorrowfully at him, clearly uncomfortable but nevertheless resolved to say whatever she'd come here to say.

"For what it's worth…" she said at last, taking a deep breath to prepare herself before she spoke again. "I'm sorry about the way I treated you before."

Despite his own grim condition, the Doctor smiled.

"You had a right to be a _bit _suspicious…" he said, shrugging slightly as he looked at Francine, trying to look reassuring; given what she must have been risking to come here in the first place- the Master was still receiving reports that Martha was alive, even if he made it clear that he doubted their accuracy after the attack on Japan, so any contact between the Joneses and the Doctor was naturally kept to as much of a minimum as could be managed- he wasn't about to get into a shouting match with her. "I mean, first time we met… we _did _have Lazarus going psycho-insect on us…"

"But you never actually _did _anything wrong," Francine said, shaking her head as she looked at him with renewed regret. "I trusted some man I'd never seen before over my own _daughter _when he told me you were dangerous… I hit you… I blamed _you _for Lazarus's attack… and you'd never done _anything _but try and _help _us…"

"I've had worse trips," the Doctor replied, shrugging slightly at the memory. "I once nearly had to banish myself outside all reality… to escape the Black Guardian of the universe; now _that _was rough…"

"The… Black Guardian?" Francine asked, looking uncertainly at the Doctor.

"Old enemy of mine; was banished to the higher dimensions… long ago; long story… not relevant right now," the Doctor said, waving a hand dismissively as he looked reassuringly at Francine. "Besides… I haven't always been great… with getting my friends home; when… I first brought my last companion back to her family… I overshot and arrived back there… twelve _months _after she was last there… rather than the twelve _hours_ I was aiming for…"

He smiled slightly reassuringly at Francine. "After that kind of mistake… well, let's just say I learned long ago… I can't expect _everyone _I meet to like me…"

"I still should have _trusted _her…" Francine muttered, looking dejectedly at the Doctor. "If she'd just felt like she could _tell _me…"

"We can always spend ages… thinking about 'what if'; even with a time machine… there are some things… you just can't change," the Doctor said, shrugging again as he looked at her. "I saw too many cases when people tried to change the past; one man… condemned himself to live his life over and over… without ever changing a _single _mistake."

"Oh my God…" Francine whispered, her eyes wide at the implications of that last statement, before another thought occurred to her. "Did you… see that with Martha?"

"No, that was long ago…" the Doctor said, waving a dismissive hand. "But… we did see some _very _interesting sights…"

"Like?" Francine asked, looking curiously at the Doctor, clearly

Despite his own grim condition, the Doctor couldn't help but smile at that.

"Where _didn't _we go, really?" he said, smiling briefly at the memory. "Took a quick spin to see Shakespeare on our first trip together and followed it up by going to New Earth to hear the last great secret of the Face of Boe in the year five billion…"

"Five… _billion_?" Francine repeated, looking at him incredulously.

"Well, give or take a few centuries… they used this really complicated new calendar by that point…" the Doctor explained, smiling slightly at the memory- putting aside the issue of the death of the Face of Boe, he'd really done a pretty good job on New Earth- as he looked at Francine. "And it didn't stop there… we investigated the disappearance of the Starship _Brilliant_… saved the last dodo from being stuck in an insane museum… spent some time tracking sentient weapons in the Wild West…"

He shook his head slightly wistfully at the memories. "We had some interesting times back then…"

"I'm sure of _that_," Francine said, shaking her head slightly at the thought of what the Doctor had told her. "So-"

The sound of the door to the conference room opening prompted Francine to turn around and get back to work at cleaning the room, leaving the Doctor staring silently at the slop before him as the soldier look a pointed glare around the room before stepping back to the outer corridor, constantly keeping an eye on the people in the room.

It might have been a brief meeting, but the Doctor had actually enjoyed it; after so long feeling uncomfortable whenever he spoke with Jackie- even after she'd accepted that he hadn't done it on purpose she'd never entirely gotten over her anger at him keeping Rose away for a year by accident-, it made a nice change to have had a fairly civil conversation with the mother of one of his companions.

A few apologies might still be needed on both sides, but the Doctor was confident they'd get there in the end; all they needed was a little time…

The Doctor stopped that train of thought from going any further; after spending so long just thinking of Martha as another companion, the last thing he wanted was to start 'jumping the gun' and imagining a more long-term association with Martha's mother before he'd even really spoken to _Martha _about this more recent… development…

And _God_, he needed to work on his ability to communicate; here he was, having fallen practically head over heels for Martha Jones, and he was thinking of it as a 'development'?

_I _really _need to get a better understanding of these things…_ he reflected, shaking his head slightly at himself as he glanced at his watch.

Assuming that her journey was progressing well, Martha should be over half-way across Australia by now…


	23. Always the Brave Heart

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: This chapter takes place at approximately the same time as the previous one, looking at a meeting Martha had after telling her story to her latest audience (Another case where I'm not _entirely _certain about chapter quality)

Broken Faith

With her story once again told to her current audience in Brisbane, accompanied by the usual instruction to pass it on, Martha was just settling down for the night when she heard a polite cough at the entrance to her tent- the equivalent of someone knocking in the absence of anything like an actual door.

"Uh… come in?" she said, turning to look slightly uncertainly at the tent as a man in approximately his late forties walked into the room, dressed in a battered jacket and walking trousers that looked like they'd seen a great deal of use even

"Miss Jones?" the man asked, looking curiously at her.

"Yes?" Martha asked, looking uncertainly back at her visitor.

"My name's Colin Frazer," the man said. "Sorry to bother you, but my cousin heard your story and… well, she wanted to talk to you; she feels fairly certain that you both have a… friend… in common."

Martha almost couldn't believe it- _another _old companion had heard about her story?-, but reminded herself of her 'meeting' with the previous nine Doctors before she said anything; after an encounter like that, she really should start getting used to the idea that thinking of _anything _as being impossible where the Doctor was concerned just meant that it was only slightly less likely for something like this to happen than it would be for others.

Still, ever since the 'dream'- for lack of a better term; she still felt uncertain if it could be accurately called a message, and it had _definitely _become a dream at the last minute- had shown her what previous Doctors had looked like, Martha _did _have a good way of testing the accuracy of these stories that the Master probably wouldn't know she possessed…

"What did he look like?" she asked, looking pointedly at her visitor.

"The… friend?" Frazer replied, pausing for a moment in recollection before he nodded. "Well, when she met him he had curly brown hair and wore a big scarf, but shortly after that he became a short-haired blond man in a cricket outfit…"

"With a… carrot… on his lapel?" Martha asked, testing the waters slightly.

"A carrot?" Frazer repeated, looking at her in surprise. "Tegan always told me it was a stick of celery…"

"Slight test," Martha assured him, allowing the older man a brief smile before she looked pointedly at him. "And… what colour was his coat?"

"Uh… beige with a… _red _lining?" Frazer asked uncertainly.

"Yep," Martha replied- _God_, she'd been spending too much time thinking about the Doctor; she was starting to _sound _a bit like him- as she stood up; she strongly doubted the Master or Rose would have bothered to give that kind of information about the Doctor's clothing when as far as they knew she only knew about one Doctor. "Well, let's go."

* * *

As she walked into the medical tent where Frazer's cousin was currently located, Martha's eyes widened as she saw the woman in question, Frazer standing beside her bed with a sympathetic gaze in his eyes. The other woman was older than Martha- approximately in her late forties- with short greying hair that might have once been a deep red when she was younger, lying on a bed with an IV drip attached to her left arm and breathing tubes linked to her nose. Her hair had been partly cut away down to the skull on the left side of her head, revealing an ugly operating scar, and her skin was pulled tight all over her bones, leaving her looking extremely pale.

"Ah… Martha Jones, I assume?" the woman asked, a strong Australian accent in her voice as she looked at the new arrival, a smile on her face that belied her current weakened condition. "Tegan Jovanka; glad to meet you at last… been hearing a lot about you lately."

"Right…" Martha said, nodding back at the woman with a slightly

"Brain tumour…" Tegan said, looking over at her with a slight smile that only reached one side of her face. "Colin does what he can… but it's started kicking in over the last year… my body's basically shut down on one side… lack of medical treatment doesn't help much either…"

"Oh my God…" Martha said, staring uncomfortably at the woman for a moment- even when she was at the Royal Hope, these kind of patients were always ones that made her uncomfortable; what do you say to someone when everything you know only allows you to confirm that they're going to die?- before she spoke again. "How long…?"

"Could be any time now… never been able to get an accurate estimate," Tegan said, shrugging with a nonchalance that was at odds with her currently grim appearance before she smiled slightly at Martha, as though at a fond memory. "An… acquaintance… thought it was caused by exposure to alien technology during my time with the Doctor… but I never bought that; if there was ever… any chance that something we encountered… could have done this, he would have… examined me as soon as he could… to confirm it. He might appear… difficult… at times, but he always _cared_; if I'd been in danger… of getting something like _this_… from anything we encountered… he'd have taken action to stop it… as soon as possible."

"Yeah, he's like that; do whatever it takes to save as many lives as possible," Martha said, shaking her head slightly at the memory of one of her closest calls with the Doctor came to her. "He once allowed himself to nearly get taken over by this sentient alien weapon because he needed it to save me; only just managed to help him fight it off before it bonded to him for good…"

"Taken over by a weapon?" Tegan said, looking at Martha with a slight smile. "And I thought Nyssa and I saw the peak of how selfless he was willing to be; he once nearly gave up his remaining regenerations to save us, but he'd have still been _himself_…"

"Hold on; he nearly gave up his _regenerations_?" Martha asked, looking with renewed curiosity at Tegan; her knowledge of regeneration might have been limited, but something that could make the Doctor willing to give up more than one of them would have to have been serious. "Why did he need to do that?"

"We'd discovered a group of people who'd trapped themselves in permanent regenerative loops," Tegan explained; Martha noted that it seemed to be an at least slight effort for the older Australian woman to speak, but she nevertheless seemed to be determined to do so. "Their attempts to become immortal had left them with their bodies constantly repairing themselves in various painful ways… and the only way for them to end it was for them to use the energy of the Doctor's remaining eight regenerations to kill themselves."

"What?" Martha asked, looking incredulously at the weak Australian. "They became immortal because _they _screwed up… and wanted the Doctor to cure _them _by killing _himself_?"

"His thoughts exactly," Tegan said, a grim expression on her face at the memory of that dark time. "He only did it because he found out that Nyssa and I had been… infected… by the creatures as their mutation triggered a viral side effect; he could leave _them _to die… but he couldn't leave _us _to die."

"Him all over, really," Martha reflected, allowing herself a brief smile at this new example of the Doctor's selflessness- he always seemed to be willing to risk himself regardless of the potential consequences-, but pushed that thought aside almost instantly;

"It all worked out, though," Tegan added, smiling reassuringly at Martha. "The Doctor's old friend Brigadier Lethbridge- Stewart ended up on their ship after going up there in 1977 and 1983… some kind of complicated mix-up involving the inhabitants' means of leaving their ship… and the energy caused when the two of him made contact basically 'replaced'… the energy that would have been generated by the regenerations."

"Oh," Martha said, once again making a note to talk to the Doctor about that particular adventure- the idea of the flaws in perpetual regeneration were definitely something that it might be interesting to learn more about-, before she turned back to look at Tegan, another question now prominent in her mind.

"Did you… enjoy it?" she asked, looking uncertainly at Tegan. "I mean, even if you're right about the tumour not being caused by something you met with the Doctor…"

"Maybe I would never have been exposed to the technology that _did _cause it if I'd lived my life and never met the Doctor?" Tegan finished for her, her mouth forming that half-smile that Martha was now growing increasingly familiar with. "I wondered about that at first after I heard that theory, and there' no denying that my life would have been _safer _if I'd never met him, but in the end…"

She smiled slightly at Martha. "Who else from this time can say they visited the greatest restaurant in the known universe in the tenth millennium? Who else can say that they met King John before the signing of the Magna Carta, or travelled to the ship that triggered the Big Bang, or… oh, all those wondrous things…"

For a moment, as Tegan lay in the bed with her eyes closed, Martha wondered if she'd passed on already, but then Tegan opened her eyes again and smiled at Martha, dispelling her initial fears.

"Life with the Doctor might not always be safe," Tegan continued, looking at Martha with a small smile as the two of them reflected on the wonders they'd witnessed, "but I like to think that, for all that I couldn't cope with the _actions _that he had to commit at times, I always enjoyed the _locations_ he took us to. I saw things I never could have imagined… witnessed wonders like nothing anyone else could imagine… and even after leaving him, I like to think he always stayed with me in the ways that matter."

"Yeah… he really makes an impact on you, doesn't he?" Martha said, smiling slightly wistfully herself at the memory of some of the things she'd seen with the Doctor in their travels; she could never decide whether she'd been more impressed by Shakespeare or New Earth on her first two trips…

"Some of us more than others, mmm?" Tegan asked, returning Martha's slight smile with one of her own, although hers was a somewhat… _knowing _smile that suddenly left Martha feeling somewhat uncomfortable.

"Uh… well, I don't know about _that_-" she said.

"Don't try and hide it, Miss Jones," Tegan said, shaking her head as she looked at the younger woman with a grin that reminded Martha of those past occasions when her mother had guessed that she and Tish were keeping something secret back when they were younger (Normally where they'd hidden a birthday present or something silly like that; they'd grown past that particular look as they'd grown up). "You might just travel with him… but from what Colin tells me of your stories… about your time with the Doctor… you wouldn't say no to something… closer?"

For a moment, Martha couldn't help but feel uncomfortable at the direction that the conversation had so suddenly taken, her mind racing as she tried to think of a way out of the current situation without having to say something to someone who _knew _how difficult a person the Doctor was to deal with as a _friend _at the best of times…

"Silence says it all," Tegan put in, a still-warm smile on her face as she looked at Martha, shaking her head wistfully at the younger woman. "You know, an old boyfriend of mine… once thought _I _was in love with the Doctor… bit shy for my taste in the body I knew him in, though… but you…"

She smiled at Martha. "Your Doctor's definitely something, isn't he?"

After a moment's silence, Martha sighed.

"He is…" she said, her voice a low whisper as she spoke, closing her eyes briefly against the pain she felt at the thought. "He's just so… _alive_… and he just… he _never _sees me…"

Tegan smiled sympathetically at her.

"I wish I could say… something to help you," she said, before she sighed slightly wistfully as she lay back again in the bed. "But… in the end… when it comes to the Doctor… in _that _area…"

She sighed. "You're on your own, Miss Jones…"

As Tegan closed her eyes, Martha vaguely heard her say something about "…fine job… brave heart…", but she didn't have time to ask what that meant before Tegan's breathing changed to a more regular pattern, making it clear that she was asleep.

Looking at his now sleeping cousin for a moment, Frazer sighed as he looked back at Martha.

"She's like that a lot these days," he said apologetically. "She tends to stay fairly quiet most of the time, but it always wears her out when she talks for long periods."

He sighed slightly as he looked at his sleeping cousin. "She used to have so much life… she was great at sketching, as an example; could draw like you wouldn't _believe_… and now, it takes so much effort just to keep herself active long enough for this…"

"I'm… I'm sorry," Martha said at last after a brief silence, looking uncomfortably at the man before her. "I… just wish I could do something for her…"

"Defeat Mr Saxon," Frazer said simply. "That's all anyone can hope for right now."

Martha didn't bother to correct him that, if all worked out, the _Doctor _would be the one to defeat the Master; for the present, as she carried the Doctor's message around the world, she was all the world had as a symbol of hope, which meant that she practically _was _the only one who could defeat the Master.

If she failed to pass on her message, the Doctor's plan would fail, and from there, her world would fall; she _couldn't _let that happen.

She just wished she felt as confident she could do this as the Doctors she had spoken to did; _why _did that message from them have to slip into that… _ridiculous_ dream before she could talk to 'her' Doctor (And when would she learn to stop _calling _him that?)…?

* * *

AN 2: Classic Who update; Tegan Jovanka was a companion of the Fourth and Fifth Doctors- although she literally met the Fourth Doctor only _just _before he regenerated; she wandered into the TARDIS by accident and ended up stuck there after the Doctor regenerated and thus found herself unable to get home due to the Fifth Doctor's comparatively poor piloting skills early on in his incarnation-, who briefly left the Fifth Doctor after they managed to return to Heathrow airport- she'd been due to start work as an air hostess before entering the TARDIS-, only to rejoin him for a while after she was used as a hostage by his old foe Omega, subsequently leaving the Doctor after practically everyone else they met in a confrontation with the Daleks was killed. She was briefly reunited with the Fifth Doctor in 2006 in the audio "The Gathering" when he was investigating Doctor Katherine Chambers- a friend of Tegan's who was experimenting with Cybermen technology as a means of treating disease-, during which it was revealed that Tegan was suffering from a brain tumour that left her with only a year or so to live- Katherine claiming that it was caused by exposure to alien technology and had been gestating for over twenty years-, but Tegan assured the Doctor that she'd nevertheless enjoyed her time with him, despite the death they'd seen over time (Completely disregarding the idea of treatment as she was perfectly satisfied with the life she'd lived)


	24. The Champion and the Vigilante

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: This chapter takes place a couple of months or so after the last one; the important thing to note is that Martha's left Australia and is currently travelling across America by this point, but nobody in the _Valiant _is precisely sure where she is

Broken Faith

Sitting in his tent late one night, nearing the ten-month 'anniversary' of the Master's conquest of Earth- if it could be called an 'anniversary' when only two people in the entire planet had any interest in celebrating it; even the Master's soldiers tended to just obey him out of fear rather than anything else-, the Doctor wished he could know how Martha was progressing on her 'trip'. More than once he'd been tempted to try and make psychic contact with her once again, but each time he was forced to stop himself, reminding himself that the long-term consequences weren't worth the benefits to Martha.

It had cost him most of the mental energy he'd diverted to 'link' to the Archangel Network just to make contact the first time, and with the Master's 'deadline' so close no he as reluctant to resort to that kind of mental effort again unless he had no other choice in case he couldn't regain it in time for the crucial moment.

He hated having to cut himself off from Martha like this, but it was the only thing he could do if he was going to ensure that the whole reason he'd sent her off in the first place was going to succeed…

Before he could follow that train of thought any further, there was a sudden _blurring _of the world just in front of him- even his _time _senses were feeling it as he tried to focus on it; evidently he was more out of it than he thought if he couldn't focus on something like this happening right in front of him-, culminating in a brief explosion of golden energy as what looked for all the world like a silver-grey motorbike appeared in front of him, a young woman, her long hair swept back in a ponytail, dressed in tight black leather and with at least two large weapons strapped to her hips sitting astride it.

"_Damn_…" she muttered, glancing around herself as she swung one leg off the bike before pulling a device out of her pocket and holding it up above her head, pausing for a moment before the device emitted a brief burst of blue energy that surrounded the room before it subsequently dying down

"What…?" the Doctor muttered, staring in confusion at the new arrival (He _knew _he'd seen her before, but in this dim lighting and with his memory already… 'screwy'… from the accelerated aging it was slightly hard to be sure) as she stepped off the bike and turned to face him.

"Mini override system; shut down the security cameras for the next few hours and wiped the last minute or two of videotape to prevent anyone noticing my arrival before I'm ready; as far as anyone out there's concerned, I'm not here and you're still sitting around like you were earlier," the woman replied, looking down at him with a slight smile. "One of the many little stealth features your lot started adding to some of their gizmos before everything fell apart in the War, Professor."

As the woman crouched down to look more directly at him, her face finally became visible in the dim light of the conference room, revealing a still-youthful face hardened by exposure to conflict and violence that should have never affected one so young, with a teasing grin on her face that the Doctor had first seen back on Iceworld over two hundred years and three bodies before.

"Ace…?" he muttered, looking with an uncertain smile at the sight of his former companion standing before him; their relationship had been strained at times, but the Doctor would always remember her with affection no matter what kind of mood Ace might be in when they met. "You… what are you… doing here?"

"Saving your ass; what else, Professor?" Ace asked, shrugging slightly as she smiled down at her old mentor before her expression became more solemn as she studied him. "You look like crap, by the way; this new regeneration _really _didn't do you any favours…"

"Actually… this is all… because of… outside sources; I'm normally… a bit younger… in this body…" the Doctor said, shrugging slightly as he looked slightly apologetically at his old companion.

"Good to know," Ace said, nodding back at the Doctor. "The last thing I wanted was to know you've gotten so screwed-up after that 'Time War' that you're letting yourself regenerate into useless bodies like this; you're Time's sodding Champion- even if it's not 'official' any more-, you shouldn't look like _this _on a regular basis…"

The Doctor didn't bother asking how Ace could have been aware of the Time War; she might have only had limited contact with Gallifrey after that whole incident with Lungbarrow, but the Doctor had been fairly certain even back then that Romana would have asked Ace for some pointers in waging war due to her expertise from the Dalek wars (Even _before _he 'made' the Daleks the Enemy by erasing the Faction, Ace had still been one of the few soldiers both on good terms with the Time Lords and used to fighting enemies across history; even his UNIT colleagues tended to stay in one time zone while working with him); it wouldn't be impossible to assume that she'd found information about the Time War at some point after the destruction of Gallifrey…

"Talking of which," Ace added, looking inquiringly at the Doctor, "I took a little peek around this planet before I came to you- earliest time frame I could reach after the whole thing went south; whoever did this has somehow managed to prevent _anyone _from 'outside' this time frame from getting here-, and it isn't looking pretty; who the hell _is _that 'Mr Saxon' bloke? I mean, even without the Time Lords hanging around, how the _hell _did he manage to find the kind of resources he'd need to do _this _kind of damage?"

"He's the Master," the Doctor replied grimly (He wasn't surprised to hear about the difficulty Ace had encountered in trying to get here; the Master must have used the Archangel Network's psychic generators- combined with the power of the TARDIS- to establish a basic 'time-lock' that at the very least made it difficult for anyone to reach Earth from the past or future…).

Ace's eyes widened.

"Hold on; that _prick _made it out of the war alive?" she said, staring incredulously at the Doctor. "How the _hell _did _he_ pull that off?"

"Ran," the Doctor said briefly. "They brought him back… gave him new lives… made him a soldier… and in the end… he was too scared… turned himself human… hid at the end of the universe… rather than fight the Daleks…"

Ace swore.

"Bastard…" she muttered, looking grimly at the room around her, her eyes narrowed in disgust. "He never _could _stick around when it looked like he wasn't going to be the top dog…"

Drawing one of her guns, she checked the weapon briefly with one hand before turning to walk towards the door, only for the Doctor to grab her ankle.

"Where… are you… _going_?" he hissed, looking at Ace with a gaze that he could only hope captured the intensity that his seventh incarnation had been so good at; he wasn't too bad at it in later bodies, but given his seventh incarnation's short stature he'd learned how to _really _make an impact without having much to physically back it up when he wanted to.

"To take that bastard out before he can do any more damage, of course," Ace replied, looking at the Doctor as though it was obvious. "Might have failed to stop him during that Tzun incident, but that was then; couple of quick shots to the hearts, followed by a blast to the brain, and I'll have him out of the picture before you can say-"

"_No_," the Doctor interjected, continuing to glare at Ace as he spoke. "_Leave_."

Ace blinked.

"I'm sorry, I think I've lost it somewhere along the line; you want me to _leave_?" she repeated, staring down at the Doctor. "As in, _let _the psychotic basket case who once let a whole _planet _get blown up after he failed to take control of something that left him looking like he'd been flash-fried _stay _in charge of Earth? Let him use the entire human race as _slaves _to make him some big ol' weapons for use against the rest of the universe? Let him keep on treating you like… I don't know _what _he's been doing to you, but it _can't _have been-"

"You don't… understand…" the Doctor wheezed, looking urgently at Ace as he spoke. "It's all… part… of the _plan_…"

Ace paused.

"Plan?" she repeated, looking quizzically at the Doctor. "What _kind _of plan?"

"One… that will _end_… the Master's reign… and save… _everyone_…" the Doctor replied, a slight smile on his face at the expression on Ace's face; she might be evidently surprised at the scale of the plan he'd just described to her, but there was nothing there to suggest that she doubted that he was capable of doing what he'd told her.

Then again, in the end, Ace had made it clear more than once that her belief in him had never entirely faltered even after their argument during that incident on Heaven; after overcoming a rift like that, expecting Ace to believe him when he said that he had a plan was practically nothing.

"Everyone, huh?" Ace said at last, looking at him uncertainly. "And… you're going to pull it off looking like something that I might've been looking after for work experience?"

"Martha's… the one… who'll 'pull it off'…" the Doctor said, nodding resolutely as he spoke almost without realising that he was doing so.

"Martha?" Ace repeated, looking at the Doctor quizzically. "Your new companion, Professor?"

"Medical student… from the present…" the Doctor replied, nodding in confirmation at Ace's guess as he slowly moved himself into a more comfortable kneeling position, unable to stop a slight smile crossing his face at the thought of Martha. "Met her while… tracking a Plasmavore… she saved my life… took her… on a trip… as thanks…"

"Hold on; you took her on a trip in the TARDIS just to say _thanks_?" Ace repeated, smiling slightly as she looked at the elderly man before her. "Bit more casual than you used to be, aren't you?"

"Well, she was… brilliant," the Doctor admitted, a slightly wistful smile on his face at the memory but unable to push it aside; even when he'd been trying to deny how he felt about Martha to himself, in those moments in the Royal Hope he'd seen from the moment they'd met someone he wouldn't mind spending more time with. "Stood up to Judoon… saved a hovercar from the Macra… saw through a Zygon… saved me from the Clade…"

"Uh… Professor?" Ace's voice suddenly cut in, his former companion's slight smirk now a far broader grin as she looked at him. "You're looking a little bit vacant; anything juicy going on in there that I should know about?"

"What?" the Doctor asked, looking up at Ace in shock- had he been _that _obvious?- before he saw the teasing grin on Ace's face fade slightly as she stared at his reaction.

"You're _that _aware of things?" she asked, her slightly incredulous expression at the implications of his reaction fading as she assumed a more reflective expression. "You _must _have liked her…"

"Didn't show it…" the Doctor muttered, lowering his head as he spoke; he hated to admit it to someone else, but he knew that Ace wouldn't judge him- they'd moved beyond the 'pointing-fingers' stage of their relationship long ago- for the mistakes he'd made, and with the cameras currently down now seemed like the best opportunity to tell _someone_ who wouldn't try and abuse their knowledge of how he felt. "I lost someone… before I met Martha… thought I cared about her… more than I did…"

"Oh," Ace said, a slightly thoughtful expression on her face that was only slightly affected by the incredulity in her eyes; evidently she was uncertain what to think about the idea of him having _those _kind of feelings. "And… you let the memory of the other one make you screw things up with… Martha?"

"Hid behind old pain…" the Doctor confirmed, only a brief nod to Ace confirming that he'd heard her; after so long keeping this to himself since he'd originally realised the depths of his feelings, it was almost a relief to give voice to his thoughts. "Kept Martha as a friend… gave her hints at more… enough to keep her around… scared of going further… always told Martha-"

"Lemme guess; in a nutshell, you let her think that you didn't want anything more than friends despite the fact that you _did _see her as somebody you could imagine being closer to because you were afraid of the consequences if you had her and lost like you lost that other 'someone', right…?" Ace muttered, shaking her head slightly as she looked at the Doctor in combined amusement and exasperation. "Over a thousand- and the last Time Lord, come to that- and you _still _manage to make a mess of relationships; no matter the species, guys _never _change…"

"Excuse me?" the Doctor asked, looking at Ace with a slightly teasing smirk that they'd started to share almost since the moment they began travelling together in the first place.

"In my experience, your lot- by which I mean guys; species-wise I was never entirely sure the majority of your lot _had_ those kind offeelings most of the time- _never _seem to handle feelings well; I knew one poor sod back at school who kept on realising how he felt about girls only _after _he'd found out the girl in question was dating somebody else," Ace commented, shaking her head wistfully at the memories before drawing her attention back to the present as she looked at the Doctor. "The point is, you might have screwed up a bit- acting like you don't care about her like _that _is only going to drive her away _eventually_-, but the first step to getting over being an idiot is _admitting _it, and you seem to have pulled that off well enough; all you need to worry about now is making sure she gets that before either of you do anything you can't take back."

Despite his own grim state, the Doctor couldn't help but smile.

"Dorothy 'Ace' McShane…" he said, his tone wistful as he looked at her. "I knew you… when you were only a waitress… with a penchant for explosives… and here you are… giving a millennia-old man… relationship advice… while protecting Time…"

"Yeah, well, I had an interesting Professor," Ace said, smiling back at the Doctor with a wistful grin of her own before she assumed a more serious expression. "Now then, care to clarify _why _your plan means I should leave?"

"To establish himself as 'Mr Saxon'… the Master used a satellite network… broadcast a telepathic field… subtly influenced everyone to like him…" the Doctor explained (He knew it was more complicated than that but now wasn't the time to go into those kind of details). "Martha's travelling the world… telling everyone about me… giving them instructions; if… all of humanity… focuses on one word… at one time… with the network active… while I tap into it _myself_…"

"It turns a _transmitter _into a _receiver _by overwhelming it with a single message coming the other way, right?" Ace asked, nodding thoughtfully as she looked at the Doctor. "I get how you might be able to use _that_- that much energy has to do _something _interesting-, but what's that going to do for the mess that bastard made of Earth?"

"Established this world… using a paradox machine… to draw his forces in… and defeat any resistance…" the Doctor explained; he wished he had time to go into more detail, but this was the best he could do given that he was almost certainly operating on a currently-unknown time limit until either his strength gave out or the cameras reactivated. "Once I'm stronger… can destroy the machine… rewind history… undo everything he did… after it activated… stop his 'army' coming here…"

"In other words, you're going to _erase _everything that he did to this planet after being given a telepathic boost by the human race?" Ace asked, smiling slightly as she studied the Doctor with a slightly wistful smile, clearly recalling some of the similarly elaborate strategies the Doctor had used during their time together. . "That's got to be one of your _wildest _plans ever… and I'm _including _the bit where you tackled the bad guy in your _head_."

"The Timewyrm… was in my _mind_… not my head; _slight_…difference," the Doctor pointed out, smiling slightly at the memory- Ace _had _given him a clear reminder of what was important when he needed it during that particular confrontation- before he became more solemn. "The point is… if you try and kill the Master… it leaves Earth like this… and takes away the cue… Martha's telling everyone… to think of me… when his countdown begins…"

"Because you know how _that _bastard thinks, you know that _he'll _use a countdown, but you can't guarantee that you'll manage to set up another 'cue' if he's taken out now, right?" Ace asked

"That… and the simple fact… that you can't guarantee success… and you're not _from _this time," the Doctor explained. "Anyone else killed here… will revive… when time reverses; if _you_…die here…"

"I stay dead afterwards no matter what because I wasn't here _before _the 'Master' got involved, huh?" Ace asked, allowing herself a brief smile as she looked at the man before her. "Even if I could _guarantee _that bastard paid for what he's done to you…?"

"_No_," the Doctor confirmed, glaring resolutely at Ace even as he tried to contain the pain he felt at what she'd implied. "_No killing_…he's psychotic… but he's all… that's left…"

"Of your people," Ace finished, nodding briefly at him in understanding; even thought she'd moved far beyond the girl from Perivale she'd been at the beginning of their travels, it would always be her home just as Gallifrey was the Doctor's. "Well… if you think your plan can handle him…?"

The Doctor nodded at her in confirmation.

Ace sighed as she put her gun back into its holster, looking at him with a slightly pointed glare. "Y'know, if anyone else tried to convince me to do this, I'd think they were nuts at best and totally delusional at worst; just consider yourself lucky you've got a rep for pulling off this kind of crap."

"'This kind of crap'?" the Doctor repeated, raising an eyebrow as he stared at Ace. "I thought… I taught you… better language than _that_…"

"Hey, you taught me how to save the world from everything from psychotic omnipotent aliens to the average human basket-case who ended up getting 'lucky'; nothing was said about working on my _language_," Ace countered, sharing a brief grin with the Doctor before she stood up and indicated her bike. "Well, I'd better be off; no point hanging around if I'm not going to be able to shoot the bastard _or _get you out of this dump…"

"Ace…" the Doctor said, looking at her with an almost hurt expression. "You're not _just_-"

"I _know _you liked seeing me, Professor; there's just only so long that stuff I did to the cameras will hold out," Ace commented, indicating the nearest of the aforementioned pieces of equipment while giving the Doctor a slightly reassuring smile. "You want me to stay alive? Chances are probably better if I bail out before your psycho schoolfriend finds out I'm here and tries the old 'eye for an eye' thing…"

"Point…" the Doctor admitted, nodding slightly as he shot Ace a brief smile, despite the grim nature of their current topic. "He never could… take losing… that well… _especially _not… a life…"

"Not exactly a newsflash, but good to know you catch my drift; best I bail out now before we take chances on things getting _really _ugly," Ace said, as she walked over to place a hand on her bike, only to pause and glance back at the Doctor. "Hey, when you see… Martha, right?"

"Yes…" the Doctor replied, looking curiously at his old companion.

"Well, when you see her, do yourself a favour; _tell her_," Ace said, her tone blunt as she looked at the Time Lord who'd taught her so much. "After all those times you tried ditching us because you didn't think you deserved _friends_, I'm not going to come back only to hear you bailed on admitting how you felt to someone you're _that _keen on because you were scared."

"How do you know… I'm '_that_ keen' on her?" the Doctor asked, looking at Ace with a half-critical, half-inquiring expression.

"For one thing, you actually admitted it," Ace said simply, looking at him with a momentarily awkward glance before she continued. "Hell, even when I _knew _how… you saw me, you never actually _said _anything about it; just the fact that you want to _talk _about her like that?"

She shrugged slightly. "Says it all for me, really."

Even in his grim condition, the Doctor couldn't help but smile.

Ace might be a hardened veteran of the Dalek Wars these days, but she could still get in his face when dealing with any topics that he found awkward just like she used to back when she was that teenage girl who'd stood by him when facing everything from the Daleks to the Timewyrm all those years ago…

"Huh," Ace suddenly said, breaking the Doctor's train of thought.

"What?" the Doctor asked, looking curiously at Ace.

"Just… all this talk about you and Martha…" Ace said, looking at the Time Lord with a slight smile as the Time Lord suddenly looked slightly awkward under her gaze, "I feel like I just learned that my dad's getting married."

For a moment, the Doctor wasn't sure how to respond to that- as Ace had said, their relationship was something they'd never expressly spoken about to each other despite being aware of it, but there was a difference between knowing something and _naming _it-, but Ace broke the silence for him once again.

"It's… _weird_, don't get me wrong," she said, as she looked reflectively at him. "I mean, even after I got a better idea of your whole 'regeneration' thing, the idea of you getting hitched isn't something I really thought about- _ever_, I might add; even the idea of you doing it in another body never occurred to me-, but…"

She shrugged, her initially-uncertain smile developing into a teasing grin. "If you found someone that makes you happy, go for it; after nearly a thousand years of being single, you could probably do with getting laid."

"We aren't-" the Doctor began.

"Give it time, Professor," Ace said, shooting him a reassuring grin as she swung her leg over the bike. "After all, if I can end up thinking of _you_ any time someone asks about my dad- and assuming you're normally a _lot _younger than this- after everything we went through back then, you can _definitely _get someone to forgive you when all you've done is be a bit of a prat most of the time."

The Doctor raised a slightly critical eyebrow at her, an echo of his seventh incarnation's occasional piercing stare that almost made Ace smile at the memories invoked by that stance.

"A 'bit of a prat', eh?" he asked, trying to glare at her in an offended manner as he spoke even if his current age limited his ability to pull it off. "And you claim… to see me… as a _father_…"

"Hey, consider yourself lucky; I always thought of my _actual _dad as a prat just because he enjoyed spending _any _length of time with my mum," Ace commented, shrugging nonchalantly as she began to tap the controls of her time machine. "Good luck at your end, Professor; I'll try and drop in on you once it's all over if I can.

With that, Ace activated her machine and vanished in the same burst of energy that she had arrived in, leaving the Doctor staring after her with a wistful smile.

After the doubts he'd originally had regarding Ace's final fate- he'd guessed that she'd been 'recruited' by Romana to provide some assistance to the Time Lords during their preparation for the War, but that as the extent of his knowledge- it as a relief to know that she as still alive and out there, doing hat she did best and remaining available if he needed her.

Even as he leant back in his tent to try and get some rest- that conversation with Ace had left him feeling more fatigued than he had for a while-, the Doctor couldn't help but feel a certain satisfaction at this latest turn of events; at least no, even in a worst-case-scenario that he prayed would never come to pass, he had hope and proof that there would still be someone out there capable of stopping the Master if he failed at his end (The idea that Martha might fail at hers as something the Doctor didn't even consider worth contemplating)…

* * *

AN 2: A case where extra info is definitely required; Ace was a companion of the Seventh Doctor for the last two years of the show, developing an almost father/daughter bond with the Doctor as he helped her overcome some past issues while facing some particularly chilling enemies, such as Fenric- an ancient being from before the dawn of time, who it was revealed was responsible for Ace joining the Doctor in the first place (A long story that can be seen in greater depth in _The Curse of Fenric_)-, and the Daleks- Ace being involved in a confrontation that culminated in the Doctor tricking the Daleks into destroying their own planet-, displaying an interesting combination of childish enthusiasm with a penchant for making explosives. In the Virgin New Adventures she left the Doctor for a while to fight in the Dalek Wars after a particularly bitter argument ("Love and War"), but later reconciled with the Doctor and rejoined him ("Deceit"), travelling with him for a time before setting herself up as 'Time's Vigilante', essentially defending a specific 'area' of time and space while the Doctor concerned himself with the universe as a whole.

AN 3: For those wondering about the previous encounters with the Master Ace is referring to, the 'Tzun incident' refers to the events of "First Frontier", when the currently-dying Master tricked the alien race known as the Tzun into restoring his ability to regenerate, Ace's subsequent attempt to kill him causing him to regenerate into a new body apparently intended to be based on Basil Rathborne (Although later appearances suggest that the new body's ability to regenerate wore out fairly quickly), while the bit about the Master blowing up a planet referred to his actions in "Dust Breeding", where he attempted to control a psychic weapon that reduced his body to a withered, burnt husk when he initially tried to steal it, the Doctor's allies later being forced to destroy the planet where the weapon was currently located- a nearly uninhabited moon- in order to stop it.


	25. Trip with the Kreniers

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: This chapter occurs around a month or so after the last one, looking at Martha's progression along America

Broken Faith

As she stood silently in a small clump of trees at the side of the road, waiting for her transportation to her next destination, Martha couldn't help but wish that she had a better idea of how things were progressing.

She was doing what she could to pass the message on, of course- after spending some time in Australia she'd managed to get a lift to South America in a boat, passing on her message to a few cities in that area as she progressed on to a ferry that would take her to North America-, but she was rapidly starting to reach the point where she just didn't know _how _widely she was spreading her message. Even with the occasional lifts she was receiving from some of the people she'd met- the Master had only allowed some of the general population to retain cars and other such means of transport under specific circumstances, such as providing medical aid to the 'workers' or moving food around, although a few people had managed to find a way around that-, she could still only cover so much ground by herself, and she was growing increasingly concerned that even after all the people she'd met assuring her that they would pass the message on further there were still going to be some areas where nobody heard what she had to tell them…

The sound of an engine approaching her position prompted Martha to glance along the road, smiling slightly as she saw that the approaching car matched the description her contact had given her of the vehicle she should expect to pick her up; a dirt-covered jeep that gave the impression that it had been used to travel through more than a few war zones in its time (According to her contact, the jeep's owners had made big money in the stock market before the Toclafane came down and had managed to use some of their pre-Toclafane resources to set up a few safe houses and transportation runs to help the general population in secret).

As the car pulled up just in front of the trees where Martha was currently waiting, the doors opened and a man and a woman stepped out, looking around themselves. The man appeared to be in his early to mid-thirties, dressed in a battered leather jacket and blue shirt and jeans, with a few days' worth of stubble on his chin- shaving was rapidly becoming something you only did out of necessity any more-, while the woman beside him had short blond hair and was of average height and build, dressed in a casual dark shirt and trousers as she looked around herself.

"Timing's just another relative dimension for you then?" the man said loudly as he glanced around himself.

"Only in spatial terms," Martha replied, smiling slightly as she stepped out from the trees to walk towards the two figures after completely the relevant code phrases.

"Oh, so you're Martha Jones, huh?" the woman said, smiling over at Martha as she walked over to shake the other woman by the hand. "Good to meet you at last; we've been hearing a lot about you-"

"Uh, not meaning to be rude, but can we get moving?" the man asked, indicating the jeep with a slight tap. "In case you've forgotten, these things aren't exactly legal right now…"

"Oh… right," the woman said, nodding slightly over at the man before she looked back at Martha. "You'll have to excuse me; my husband's always reminding me we need to be more cautious these days…"

"Not used to the rough life, huh?" Martha asked, her tone giving no indication of her thoughts about that as she moved to climb into the back of the jeep, the other two taking up position up front.

"Just fell out of practise with it," the woman said, shrugging slightly as she climbed back into the passenger side, the other man- her husband- getting into the driver's seat and starting the engine once again. "Actually made a living as a con artist before things picked up for me after a very particular job; I got used to living by my wits back in those days, but I guess some old habits just got lost a bit earlier than others…"

"Talking of which, forgot to introduce ourselves; sorry about that," the man said, nodding at her with a slight apologetic smile visible in the rear-view mirror as he indicated the blonde woman beside him. "I'm Fitz Krenier, and this is my wife Trix; we've been looking forward to meeting you for a while."

"You have?" Martha asked, looking slightly uncertainly at the two new arrivals, her initial relief replaced with caution; even after the modifications Toshiko had made to her key, she still felt slightly uncomfortable when dealing with humans after they made any kind of comment like that in case they turned out to be agents of the Master.

"Oh yeah; Trix and I heard your story, and… well, we're _pretty _sure you know a friend of ours," Fitz said, smiling slightly at her.

"Really?" Martha replied, allowing a slight smile as she looked back at Fitz, already realising what he meant even as she went over possible questions to confirm his intentions. "Would your… friend… happen to spend his time travelling a lot in a box?"

"While using a certain device based on sound?" Trix added, smiling back at Martha as she nodded in confirmation. "Yeah, that's him."

"And… what did he _look _like when you knew him?" Martha asked, looking more pointedly at the people before her as she moved on to her 'secret' information (As she'd come to think of her knowledge about what past Doctors looked like based on her dream; the Master couldn't imagine she possessed that information, so why would he bother giving 'mere' humans more than they 'needed' to know to trick her?).

"Well… a bit taller than me, long brown hair, often dressed in green velvet and a waistcoat?" Fitz said, looking uncertainly at Martha, clearly wondering why she had asked that question.

"Oh, _that _one," Martha said, nodding in confirmation as she sat back in the seat and nodded at the driver before another thought occurred to her regarding what she knew of that Doctor's life.

"Uh…" she began, looking slightly uncertainly at the man before her before she decided to just take the plunge and ask the question she really wanted to know. "When you… travelled with him… did he… _know _who he was?"

For a moment there was an uncertain silence- what Martha could see of Fitz's expression in the rear-view mirror suggested that he was trying to think of the best way to answer that question- before he turned around to look at her.

"Well… when I _left _him, he still didn't remember his past _exactly_… but he _implied _that he was going off to do something to correct that…" he said uncertainly, as he looked curiously at Martha. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, I heard from… another friend of his… a while back that he didn't remember where he came from or anything like that when he was… like _that_; I just wondered when you knew him…" Martha explained, wishing she could think of a better way to say what she was trying to say; working out the chronology of a time traveller's life was hard enough at the best of times…

"Oh, you met Anji?" Trix asked, turning to smile at Martha herself.

"You know her?" Martha asked, taken aback at this particular coincidence; past companions were one thing, but this was the first time she'd met past companions who knew some of the _other _people she'd met in her travels.

"Oh yeah; met her when I went looking for the Doctor after Gallifrey-" Fitz began, only to stop himself mid-sentence as he looked suddenly uncomfortable.

"Gallifrey?" Martha repeated, looking at Fitz with renewed interest (Not to mention more than a little apprehension at the implication of that last statement). "You… you s_aw_ the Time War?"

For a moment there was only silence in the car, Fitz sitting in silence as Tri looked between him and Martha, clearly uncertain what, if anything, she should say, before Fitz finally spoke again.

"Yeah… I saw it," he said at last, his tone grim as he stared at the road ahead, seemingly only aware of the essential details of his surroundings as he spoke. "The Doctor tried everything… he fought with everything he had to find another way to do it… he even tried to change his own _history _to pull it off…"

He sighed. "But, in the end, all he could do was destroy everything…"

Martha's eyes widened at the implications of that last statement.

She'd known that the Doctor was the last Time Lord (Before he found out about the Master's survival), but hat Fitz had just said…

"_He _destroyed Gallifrey?" she said, looking at Fitz in horror.

Surviving the destruction of your home planet when everyone else died was bad enough, but the idea that the Doctor had been the one to destroy it…

Even if she knew he'd only have done something that drastic if he'd been certain there as no other choice, what he must have been trying to cope with since making that call…

"If there'd been any other option he'd have taken it," Fitz continued, confirming Martha's own thoughts as he briefly glanced back to glare at her- the road ahead was currently empty and fairly straight-, before he turned back to the job at hand, sighing slightly as he spoke. "But… there wasn't. In the end, after all the worlds he'd saved… all the people he'd helped… he couldn't help his _own people _see sense until it was too late…"

If it had been possible for Martha to feel more sympathy for the Doctor after learning that he was the last of his race, she felt it now; nobody should have to live with the knowledge that they'd destroyed their own _people_…

_Maybe that's why he lost his memory before Anji met him_… Martha mused, before shaking that thought aside; speculating on psychological explanations for an old case of amnesia would accomplish nothing.

"I'm… I'm sorry you had to see that," she said, nodding briefly at Fitz. "I… I can't _imagine _what that must have been like…"

"Thanks," Fitz said, nodding back at her before falling into silence, Trix clearly uncomfortable with the current topic- evidently she hadn't been present at Gallifrey's destruction herself- and thus uncertain what to say at present.

"So…" Martha said at last after a brief pause, looking at Fitz and Trix with a slightly encouraging smile, "on a lighter topic, did you two go anywhere… interesting… while you were with him?"

As thought that question had been a signal, Fitz smiled wistfully even as he continued driving, and even Trix couldn't restrain a brief grin.

"Well," she said, smiling at Martha as she turned around to look at the younger woman, "Fitz spent more time with the Doctor than I did, but I _was _with them both when we confronted a race of sentient crystals that were trying to become the new Time Lords, discovered a bunch of windows that could show you the future, and confronted a race of living dead who reproduced using psychic energy generated in an asylum; how's that for interesting?"

Martha couldn't help but smile slightly at the other woman's recollection of her travels.

She'd long ago stopped worry about trying to 'out-do' any past companions she might meet with tales of what they'd encountered with the Doctor- with the universe the size it was, it would be ridiculously unlikely for the Doctor to encounter similar problems more than once, so their experiences were likely to be so diverse as to make comparison pointless-, but it was still entertaining to share the stories of what they'd encountered over their time in the TARDIS…

"Interesting, I'll give you that," she admitted, smiling slightly at Trix. "Still, if you want strange aliens, how about this; a living sun, a giant jellyfish-like thing that used other peoples' minds to do its thinking for it, and angel-like creatures that send you into the past to _live _yourself to death?"

Despite her best intentions, Martha would have been lying if she said she didn't enjoy the surprised look on Trix's face.

"A… a _living sun_?" Trix repeated, looking incredulously at Martha; evidently the other two were slightly more plausible than the first possibility. "You're _kidding _me!"

"Hey, when I was with the Doctor we apparently encountered a creature that essentially ate concept- I never saw it myself, but the Doctor gave me a pretty detailed description of what it could-; after that, a living sun's easy," Fitz added, smiling slightly back at Martha. "Talking of interesting things, how about a weapon from the far future that turned a guy into a man/wasp hybrid?"

Martha couldn't help but shudder briefly at that image, but shook it off with the recollections of her own encounters with alien technology.

"Interesting, but how about an alien weapon that not only thinks for itself, but actually turned against its creators because it got bored before ending up in the Wild West?" she asked, trying not to think too much about how close she'd come to losing the Doctor on that occasion; the memory of him having to fight that Clade weapon because he'd needed it to save her life still hurt sometimes…

"A world where the inhabitants all lived in a massive virtual reality system?" Fitz 'countered'; clearly he was enjoying the current 'back and forth' nature of their conversation jut as much as Martha was.

"I _did _visit a prison ship where the inmates were kept contained by a creature that created a virtual environment based on their dreams; does that count?" Martha asked with a slightly teasing tone; she could definitely see Fitz and the Doctor getting along well when they were travelling together (Even if she had to remind herself that he had travelled with an _earlier _Doctor than the one she knew best)…

* * *

As the drive continued, occasionally travelling off-road to avoid some of the more obvious roads- the Toclafane might not be able to monitor everything on the planet, but none of the people in the jeep wanted to attract more attention than they had to-, Martha, Fitz and Trix continued to share some of their stories about their time with the Doctor, Trix occasionally telling Martha some of the stories she'd heard from Fitz when Fitz was forced to particularly contrite on some of the rougher terrain. It was only when Martha glanced at a nearby road sign that she realised they were almost at the town where she was catching a boat to North America, prompting her to ask the question she was particularly interested in knowing the answer to.

"So…" she said at last, looking uncertainly between the two of them. "Why did you _stop _travelling with the Doctor?"

For a moment, Fitz and Trix were silent, exchanging reflective glances as the jeep drew past the roadsign, before Trix spoke again.

"Well," she began, looking back at Martha, "we actually left him about… I'd say it was four years ago, during… you remember that incident with those giant fly things a few years back, right?"

"What, with that second 'moon' showing up for a while and all those giant bugs flying around that big mountain they stuck together?" Martha asked, looking curiously at the other woman (She was one of several people who still wasn't clear on what had happened during that whole mess; given that it had culminated with most of the people who had been declared dead during the initial attack by the fly creatures turning up alive- and none of them had been anyone Martha knew personally; it made it hard to know that something like that was real when you hadn't experienced it yourself- and the 'mountain' they'd apparently used as a base vanishing before anyone could investigate it, that one had been far easier to dismiss as a hoax than such encounters as that ship appearing above London on Christmas Day, especially since nobody outside the military had actually seen the mountain). "What about it?"

"Well… that was actually caused by one of the Doctor's race," Trix explained.

Martha's eyes widened in shock.

"Hold on; a _Time Lord _did that?" she said, staring incredulously at the other woman; the Master's attempt at conquering Earth was one thing, but the idea that a Time Lord would unleash that kind of destruction for no apparent reason (The fact that she hadn't heard even rumours about someone being responsible for that suggested that the Time Lord hadn't even tried to take advantage of the chaos caused by the Vore to try something).

"Well, it wasn't something he did _deliberately_; the Vore- those fly things- were drawn to Earth when some of his equipment caused some kind of breach in the TARDIS that attracted their attention…" Fitz said, shrugging slightly as Martha looked quizzically at him. "Hey, the technical stuff was never my strong point, and I never even met the guy who did it; he died during the confrontation with those suckers and Trix and I just got filled in by the Doctor on what he'd been up to afterwards."

Shaking his head slightly as he turned into a side street, Fitz continued. "Anyway, Trix and I had already been thinking about leaving at that point- we both felt we'd just seen enough, really-, and after I nearly ended up getting killed by the Vore before the Doctor figured out a way to stop them- Trix spent a few days thinking that I _was _dead; something about the Vore allowed them to spray people with this chemical that left all observers convinced they were dead and disregard anything that might tell them otherwise-, well…"

He shrugged. "The Doctor saved everyone he could, don't get me wrong, and I knew that he'd never _let _anything happen if he could help it, but I just… for the first time in what seemed like forever- even before I met him I never really fit in-, I felt like I had somewhere I wanted to live, and someone I wanted to live there _with_; I didn't want to spend the rest of my life going through time without an actual home."

In her way, Martha couldn't help but sympathise with that; even when travelling with the Doctor, she'd still felt like Earth when she'd left it was the place where she belonged (Although the TARDIS was definitely somewhere else she could see herself living, it wasn't quite the same just spending time with a… friend… when you could be making a life with someone you… loved)…

"Something up?" Trix asked, breaking into Martha's train of thought.

"Mmm?" Martha asked, looking up at the other woman apologetically; she'd been so distracted she hadn't even realised that the jeep had parked in an alleyway. "Oh… just thinking; it's nothing important."

With that, she grabbed her bag and got out of the car, walking over to stand beside the driver's window as Fitz rolled it down.

"Thanks," she said, smiling slightly at the older man, her words making it clear that she was referring to more than just the lift to her current location.

"Any time," Fitz replied, nodding in confirmation. "We're a member of an exclusive little group, Martha Jones; if we don't look out for each other, who will?"

He smiled slightly as he looked at her. "Besides… it's good to know that things worked out for the Doctor in the end; it might have been the right time for _me _to leave him, but it's good to know he did OK for himself afterwards as well."

"And hey," Trix added, smiling slightly at Martha, "if you need help passing on your message to some parts of the world around here…"

Her smile broadened as she looked at Martha. "Let's just say that I learned a few interesting tricks when it came to disguising myself a _long _time ago."

Martha couldn't help but smile back at her fellow companion, but the smile faded as she processed the implications of Trix's statement.

"Hold on, you can't-" she began.

"I spent a few weeks in a ridiculous padded costume that made me look like I'd been binge-eating for the last month to find out what a crystal skeleton had to do with time anomalies; compared to that, disguising myself as you would be easy," Trix interjected, smiling reassuringly at Martha. "Trust me; all I need is a few quick pointers on where you've been already- so I know where _not _to go to avoid any possibility that of someone learning the truth-, maybe a few suggestions about where I could go in _North _America once we're done here- you take part of the continent and I deal with the rest; gives you more time to get back to Britain-, and I can help make _sure _your message gets around to any areas you might not have managed to reach yet."

For a moment Martha simply stood staring uncertainly at Trix, before glancing over at Fitz.

"And… you'd be… OK with this?" she asked, looking uncertainly at Fitz. "I mean…"

"After what I said about leaving the Doctor because we'd had enough, why would I want us to do something that puts us in danger again?" Fitz asked, smiling slightly at Martha. "That's the thing about knowing the Doctor, Miss Jones; once you've met him, you realise that you can't stop trying everything you can to make the world better when you've got the chance."

Martha couldn't argue with that; even if she'd never considered herself selfish before meeting the Doctor- she was training to become a doctor to help people, after all-, she knew already that, even when she left him, she'd find it hard to stop looking for other opportunities to help people after being inspired by his example.

"If you're sure…" she said, looking slightly uncomfortably at Trix and Fitz.

"Hey, it's nothing the Doctor wouldn't do if he could," Trix said, smiling reassuringly at Martha. "We were already doing what we could against the Master; this strategy just gives us a more organized plan."

* * *

An hour or so later, as the jeep drove back off into the streets, its remaining passengers now with a rounded itinerary that had been pieced together- mostly consisting of the western coast on the grounds that Martha would want to stay on the same side of the continent as Britain-, Martha couldn't help but smile slightly as she looked after the two people who had been her travelling companions for such a short time.

The Doctor had definitely left quite an impression on them; according to Fitz, he'd been little more than a sixties slacker back when he and the Doctor had first met, while Trix seemed to have been more interested in making money than any finer motives, and now, here they were, working to help others in a world that had fallen apart simply because it was the right thing to do.

If anything, Martha envied them; they'd been through so much with the Doctor- particularly in Fitz's case, if he'd actually been _present _during the final battle of the Time War-, and they'd still managed to find someone they wanted to spend their lives with.

Could _she _ever find someone who looked at her like that?

After all she'd been through with the Doctor, was there anyone out there who could really _understand_…?

Martha pushed that thought aside and turned back to the matter of finding her way to the docks; she had a boat to catch, and getting bogged down in speculation like that wouldn't accomplish anything more than leaving her feeling frustrated.

* * *

AN 2: Another Classic Who update; Fitz Krenier travelled with the Eighth Doctor for the majority of the Eighth Doctor Adventures series published by the BBC, originally meeting the Eighth Doctor in 1963 when the Doctor arrived at a sanatorium run by Doctor Charles Roley- Fitz's mother being one of his patients-, only for the patients to subsequently fall victim to madness-inducing alien leeches (A story revealed in more depth in "The Taint"), forcing the Doctor to kill them all and leaving Fitz with no other option but to travel with him to avoid being accused on murder. Despite being a bit of a slacker with no real drive when he met the Doctor, Fitz grew to become a highly capable companion, standing by the Doctor against such diverse crises as the destruction of the TARDIS ("The Shadows of Avalon"), Faction Paradox's invasion of Gallifrey ("The Ancestor Cell"), the Doctor's subsequent amnesia ("Escape Velocity"), the loss of his second heart ("The Adventuress of Henrietta Street"), and the final confrontation with the Council of Eight as they sought to erase alternate timelines ("Sometime Never…"). Trix was a con artist hired by the Doctor's enemy Sabbath to acquire the pages of a diary at an auction the Doctor was also attending, who sneaked into the TARDIS because she was intrigued by the possibilities time travel offered her line of work, later proving herself to be an able companion and a compassionate woman in her way, apparently leaving the Doctor in 2005 after she and Fitz fell in love and decided to start a life together based on stock market tips Trix had acquired on their trips to the future.


	26. Sarah Jane Smith VS Rose Saxon

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: This chapter occurs at approximately the same time as the last one, looking at the _Valiant_'s cells as they play host to a _very _particular prisoner…

Broken Faith

As Sarah Jane Smith sat in the cells on board the _Valiant_- when she'd agreed to check over the plans as part of her 'alien expertise' service to UNIT, she hadn't expected to be experiencing them like _this_-, dressed in a drab grey prison uniform and with her wrists and ankles bound in manacles, she wondered what should surprise her more; the fact that it had taken this long for 'Mr Saxon' to get around to capturing her, or the fact that she was still alive after spending this long as his 'guest'.

She'd been waiting for his men to show up for her ever since she'd helped Martha Jones get out of England on the first day of 'Mr Saxon's' reign over Earth… and, in all fairness, in those early days there'd been a part of her that would have welcomed it, after seeing Luke…

Sarah couldn't stop a brief tear from trickling down her cheek at the thought of her long-dead 'son'; she doubted that particular injury would ever truly heal, no matter the fact that she'd now spent almost more time _missing _Luke than she'd ever spent _with _him.

After so long thinking she'd never have a family beyond her fellow companions and that 'tin dog'… to have lost her son like _that_…

It had only been the knowledge that Maria and Clyde needed her that had allowed her to go on at first, and even then it had been mostly desperate hopes rather than anything else. Their attempt to combine K9 and Mr Smith's programs to develop a means of controlling the black hole K9 was monitoring to use as a weapon against the Toclafane- the hope being that they could open it at just the right moment to absorb a mass of Toclafane all at once- only resulted in K9 being sucked into the hole before Mr Smith could stabilise it himself, and that had required Mr Smith to devote all his processing power to the task to prevent Earth's destruction. Clyde had later been killed when a Toclafane struck him down while he was trying to make contact with his father- the man was somewhere on the other side of London, apparently; Clyde had heard something about him still being alive and left without taking precautions-, and Maria…

The sight of her still, dead face after Mike Yates- _Mike Yates_ working for the _Master_; Sarah still couldn't believe there was _any _hypnotic control strong enough to make Mike do something like _that_- had shot her simply for trying to protect _her_…

It had only been a couple of days since her capture- evidently 'Mr Saxon' had more important things to do with his time then deal with her-, and Sarah already knew that the image of Maria's death would haunt her dreams for the rest of her life.

And the fact that the Master wanted her _alive_…

She didn't know what that meant, but if he still had the Doctor held captive somewhere- and he _would _have the Doctor captive somewhere; she might have only met the renegade Time Lord during that 'Death Zone' business herself, but she'd read enough UNIT files to have a pretty good grasp of what made him tick, and 'proving' his superiority to the Doctor to ensure his enemy knew that he'd lost was always one of his most defining characteristics-, she had a sneaking suspicion that he was just waiting for the right moment to kill her in such a manner as to truly break the Doctor's spirit…

Sarah's grim thoughts were cut off when the door to the cells was opened and a young woman with shoulder-length blond hair walked into the room, dressed in an elegant black skirt and jacket as she looked at Sarah with a slightly condescending smile, as though Sarah was missing something obvious that the woman was fully aware of.

Sarah's blood ran cold.

She _knew _this woman…

But her presence here… looking like _that_… apparently unharmed and walking freely through the Master's headquarters…

"Rose?" she said, staring incredulously at the Doctor's most recent companion- not counting Martha Jones, of course- as she stood outside her cell, continuing to smile at her in a somewhat unnerving manner. "Wh… what are you _doing _here?"

"Oh, when my husband told me that you'd been captured, I just felt like checking up on you to see how you were," Rose replied, still smiling at Sarah as though they'd simply met up in a café rather than conversing on opposite sides of a cell. "It's been so long since I saw a familiar face, I just felt that I _had _to-"

"Hold on; your _husband_?" Sarah repeated, looking at Rose with renewed shock.

It didn't fit with the Master she'd read about, but now that she thought back on the footage she'd seen of 'Harold Saxon's' wife before his true identity was revealed, allowing for a change in hair colour- Mrs Saxon's face had always been concealed from view for some reason or another-, his wife _did _look like Rose…

"You married the _Master_?" she said, horror dominating her expression as she stared at the Doctor's former companion.

Seeing Mike shoot Maria had been bad enough, but he was almost certainly hypnotised if his blank expression and constant silence were any kind of clue; Rose looked and acted far too… _normal_ to be under the Master's influence…

"Of course I did," Rose said, shrugging slightly as she looked at Sarah, dashing Sarah's fleeting hope that she still had an ally in Rose. "He saved me from the alternate world where I was trapped and brought me back to the Doctor; it was the only thing I could do for him-"

"I'm sorry; you _married _him because he _brought you back to the Doctor_?" Sarah repeated, looking incredulously at Rose. "How does _that _make _any _kind of sense?"

"Oh, it's more a marriage of convenience than anything else- I helped him establish some credibility with the voters and gave him a bit of human insight into where some of the resistance might be hiding out-, but he's not bad company really," Rose said, a casual smile on her face that almost scared Sarah more than an insane grin might have done; if it wasn't for the fact that Rose was talking about marriage to the man who'd once tried to summon an alien devil, she could have almost thought Rose was rational. "Plus, the stories he has to share about the Doctor…"

"Such as the fact that he destroyed Atlantis trying to take control of a time-devouring monster?" Sarah interjected, recalling an event from the UNIT files she'd studied after joining the Doctor- her wrist might have ached from the forms the Brigadier had made her fill in at the time, but it had been worth it to get clearance to find out more about her remarkable new friend- as she glared at Rose. "Your 'husband' is a _psychopath_, Rose-"

"No he's not," Rose said, shaking her head as she looked at Sarah. "He's just more… direct… than the Doctor is; it's a bit more disturbing, but it's not a crime-"

"He once tried to unleash a race of prehistoric fish-people to destroy us just to get out of _prison_!" Sarah yelled in frustration. "God, he threatened to kill _three _Doctors at once the last time I saw him; that is _not _the action of a man who's thinking clearly!"

She knew that there was more to the Sea Devil situation than what she'd just told Rose- the Doctor had often virtually insisted that she understand that the Silurians and Sea Devils were merely misguided rather than being explicitly villainous-, but this wasn't the time to get into that kind of detail; she just hoped that the example of the Master being prepared to kill three different Doctors at once- something that even she, with her limited knowledge of time, knew would have been dangerous; how could he have killed all three of those past Doctors in Rassilon's Tomb without _some _kind of damage being done to history?- would give Rose something to think about…

"That was then," Rose said, shaking her head at Sarah, her tone making it clear that the journalist's attempts to make her see reason had failed before they could even really get started. "The Master's not like that any more; he's not doing this for _himself_, he's doing it to rebuild the Time Lord Empire-"

"The 'Time Lord Empire'?" Sarah repeated incredulously. "The Time Lords were basically 'intergalactic ticket inspectors'; they just… kept an eye on Time and were content to hang around and _watch_, they didn't _want _an Empire-!"

"And that's why they fell," Rose said, her tone actually sounding sad as she looked at Sarah. "The Doctor doesn't yet appreciate that we're only doing what's necessary; sometimes- like in the Time War after the Daleks killed his people- you _have _to kill the few to save the many-"

"The Doctor once had a chance to _completely _destroy the _Daleks_ at their very _beginning_," Sarah interjected; she hated sharing such a personal trip with a woman as deranged as Rose had apparently become- even during their 'contest' back in their first meeting she hadn't mentioned that encounter-, but if Rose thought she could justify mass murder in the name of some 'greater good' and think that the Doctor would understand it she had another thing coming.

Rose blinked.

"What?" she asked, looking uncertainly at Sarah.

"It was when I was travelling with him," Sarah said, looking coldly at the woman she'd once considered a friend. "The three of us- me, the Doctor, and Harry Sullivan; another old friend of ours- were sent to the Daleks' home planet in its distant past by the Time Lords, who wanted the Doctor to prevent or delay their evolution when they had only _just_ been created."

"Oh my God…" Rose said, her voice low as she stared at a point slightly past Sarah, her expression making it clear that she was currently lost on thought at the implications of what Sarah had just told her, before the smile faded.

"He failed," the other woman said, a sorrowful expression on her face that Sarah wanted to slap off; how _dare _this… _bitch _try to act like she _sympathised _with the Doctor when she'd gone and married to one of his greatest enemies? "He couldn't stop them beginning their spread across the universe… he failed to prevent their evolution… that failure led to the Time War…"

"Actually, he _wouldn't _stop them, _Mrs Saxon_," Sarah said, smirking grimly at Rose (The idea of the Doctor being responsible for the extinction of his own people by his inaction was a troubling one, but Sarah still knew that the Doctor couldn't have done otherwise if he was to remain who he was). "There _is _a difference."

Rose stared in confusion.

"…What do you mean, he _wouldn't _stop them?" she asked at last, looking at Sarah as though she'd just spoken in Japanese. "The Doctor _couldn't _have _let_ the Daleks _live_ if he'd had a chance to destroy them-"

"But he did," Sarah said, staring grimly at Rose as she spoke, wanting to ensure that her former fellow companion- as far as Sarah was concerned, she couldn't even consider Rose a companion any more; the other woman didn't even deserve to be _associated _with the Doctor if she'd participate in something like this willingly- understood what she was saying. "He'd set up a series of explosives that would have destroyed the already-evolved Dalek mutants in their 'breeding room' before they could even be installed in the 'Mark Three Travel Machines'- the casings we see the Daleks using normally; the casings hadn't gone into mass production yet-, and all he had to do was touch two wires together to complete the circuit and set the explosives off… but he. Did. _Not. Do it_."

"Why not?" Rose said, looking honestly confused as she looked at Sarah.

Sarah smiled slightly at the woman she'd once considered part of the strangest family in existence- a family where the only common factor was a police box; time, planet, and even _species _of origin weren't details that could stop you from becoming the Doctor's companion if you wanted to join him-, allowing herself a brief moment's reflection on that particular trip with the Doctor and Harry- poor old Harry, dead of a heart attack around a year before she met the Doctor once more- before she continued her grim explanation, the memories of her revelations about the Doctor's motivations filling her mind as she reflected back on those dark days.

"I wondered that myself at the time," she said. "Even as we stood outside that room as he prepared to touch those wires together… even when I reminded him how evil the Daleks were… all the suffering they'd cause if he let them live… he reminded me of one crucial detail; if he- if _any_ of us- kill like that… wipe out an entire species when they can't fight back and technically haven't done anything wrong- there were only around three Daleks actually active at that point; the rest of them were little more than malformed blobs that could barely move- just because of what they are… how are we any different from the Daleks?"

After giving Rose a moment's silence to process what she had just said, Sarah fixed her gaze on the other woman's eyes as she spoke again. "There are no circumstances- _none_- that will allow the Doctor to 'understand' what you're doing is 'for the best'; he recognised long ago that mass murder on this scale is _never _an answer."

For a moment, as Rose stared back at her, Sarah could almost allow herself to hope that her words had reached whatever sanity was left in Rose's mind…

Then Rose stepped back, a disgusted look on her face, and Sarah knew that she'd failed.

"You _don't _get to criticise me," the younger woman said, staring coldly back at Sarah. "I've _seen _what the Doctor will do-"

"I never said he wouldn't _kill_; I simply said that he wouldn't kill on _this _scale… and _definitely _not the way you've done things," Sarah said, her tone cold as she stared at the younger woman. "No matter what reason you've created to justify this to yourself, you and your 'husband' destroyed millions of lives without even providing the people you killed with an explanation why you were doing it when they had done nothing to you; even if the Doctor had to do something like this, he would only do it if he was undeniably certain that he'd exhausted every other option that could allow him to save the majority."

"This _was _the only way-" Rose began.

"To accomplish what, exactly; to save us from _Utopia_?" Sarah asked, raising a critical eyebrow as she glared at Rose.

Noting the other woman's stunned expression at Sarah's unexpected knowledge, the journalist smirked slightly.

"I _met _Martha Jones, Rose," Sarah explained, glaring at Rose as she spoke. "She told me how the Master got here, where he came from, and what it was like then… and I have to say that, as far as I'm concerned… she _definitely_ understood the Doctor better than you do."

Sarah almost couldn't believe what she'd just said- she hadn't even consciously realised that she felt that way regarding Martha's status as the Doctor's companion-, but she knew that it was the truth.

Rose might have demonstrated a certain… interest… in the Doctor when they'd met during that affair at Deffry Vale school, but Martha had shown a genuine compassion and concern for the Doctor during her brief meeting with Sarah that Rose hadn't shown; Rose had been more concerned with the fact that she wasn't the Doctor's 'first' companion- how she could have believed that Sarah didn't know; even she'd only been with the white-haired Doctor she'd met originally for a couple of weeks before she'd heard about Jo Grant, and even then she hadn't been surprised there'd been others- and trying to 'outdo' her with what they'd seen in the TARDIS then actually showing interest in asking for more information about the Doctor _himself_…

"You…" Rose practically growled as she glared at Sarah. "You… you _liar_! You can't understand what Utopia was like _or _why we're trying to stop it; I _love _the Doctor-"

"And you're married to his greatest enemy; that's _definitely _what you do to someone you love," Sarah countered, glaring back at Rose. "At least Martha's _trying _to help him; you've been up here for a year and you've done _nothing _for him but make sure he stays put, have you?"

"He needs to understand-" Rose protested.

"Understand what; that you betrayed _everything _he believed in and married his greatest enemy to virtually _destroy_ his favourite planet?" Sarah interjected; she couldn't believe someone could be this deluded. "There are _no _circumstances under which the Doctor could see what you've done as a 'good' thing, Rose Tyler; he would only see it as the greatest betrayal _anyone _has caused him."

She acknowledged that she might be exaggerating with that last comment- it was possible another companion might have done something more drastic that she herself hadn't known about-, but she still felt that it was a valid point. After witnessing the Doctor's shock at Mike Yates' original betrayal of UNIT to work with 'Operation Golden Age', she knew that one of the things the Doctor held most dear to himself was the knowledge that he could always trust his companions; the thought that Rose- whom he'd evidently been close to back when she met them- could do this couldn't be something he found pleasant to think about.

"The human race was reduced to little more than scavengers-" Rose continued.

"After surviving to the end of the universe itself, I think we have a right to be a _bit _desperate!" Sarah retorted. "The Master doesn't _care _about us, Rose; all he cares about is hurting the Doctor-!"

"All we want is for the Doctor to _understand_," Rose said, looking scathingly at Sarah as she stepped back slightly and nodded at one of the nearby guards. "If you can't appreciate that…"

She sighed in an overly dramatic and sympathising manner as a guard stepped forward to open Sarah's cell, his gun aiming at her even as Rose continued to speak, "…then we'll just have to try a more direct method to make our point."

Sarah didn't even have a chance to ask what Rose meant by that before the younger woman turned around and walked off down the opposite corridor with a casual strut, the guard indicating with his gun that Sarah was to follow her.

Walking along the corridors of the _Valiant_, Sarah barely paid attention to her surroundings, still trying to figure out how the woman she'd met during the Krillitane crisis could have become this twisted that she'd side with the Master- this was clearly no form of hypnosis; Rose was far too confident in her speeches to lack an independent mind, even if she _was _sprouting off this ridiculous crap-, until she found herself in what could only be the conference room, currently unoccupied apart from a figure slumped in a wheelchair and a man in a dark suit that Sarah instantly recognised.

"Oh, _there _you are," she said as the Master grinned at her, his beardless face reflecting the same casual arrogance she'd seen when she'd first met him in the Death Zone with her original Doctor all those years ago (She still appreciated the chance to say a more proper goodbye to that incarnation, even if she regretted never getting a suitable farewell with the Doctor he'd become). "I wondered when you'd have the nerve to show yourself."

"Oh, come _on_, we're all old friends here, Miss Smith, aren't we?" the Master replied, casually nodding at the guard that he could leave even as he continued to grin at Sarah. "I still remember the last time we met-"

"Yes, you threatened to shoot the Doctors and the Brigadier knocked you out while you were distracted; that _did _have a lot to recommend it, really," Sarah interjected, allowing herself a brief smirk at the momentarily offended look on the Master's face before his old casual grin returned.

"Well, we're all a bit stupid when we're young, aren't we?" he said dismissively. "I spent too much time talking before I'd _really _won, my dear companion here believed in the Doctor's talk of winning without death being a requirement, the Doctor here never believed his companions could think for themselves to that extent…"

Sarah barely registered whatever else the Master might have been saying; as soon as she heard the Doctor's name, she stepped off to one side to look at the man in the wheelchair behind the Master.

For a moment she thought that the Master was referring to someone else- the figure before her was far too old to be the Doctor; his skin was covered in liver spots and his skin was so stretched she could practically see his bones-, but then she took in the clothes he was wearing- the same brown suit and long overcoat she'd seen the Doctor wearing the last time she'd met him- along with the familiar gleam in his eye- dimmed due to his physical condition but no less evident-, and knew that she was correct.

"Doctor?" Sarah asked, staring at him incredulously; Martha had warned her about what the Master had done to him, but she didn't think it had been that extreme. "But… but you're…?"

"Old?" the Doctor replied, smiling slightly back at her, the grin on his face still recognisable as the smile he'd given her when they'd said goodbye last time. "Laser screwdriver… accelerated aging… long story…"

"And you're not _really _going to have time to hear it, Miss Smith," the Master added, stepping back slightly to point a strange gold-and-silver device that vaguely reminded Sarah of the Doctor's new sonic screwdriver at her chest, glancing over at the Doctor with a casual smirk as he aimed it at her. "Of course, if the Doctor here is willing to offer his assistance in getting that TARDIS of his working again- or even use his oh-so-interesting insight into your species to maybe even offer me a few suggestions on what the 'resistance' might do next, things like that-, I _might _think about letting you hang around to hear that story in detail…"

For a moment, Sarah simply stood in silence as she stared at the Master, before she leant over slightly and spat in his face.

"Live in a world ruled by _you_?" she asked, looking scornfully at him. "I'd almost _rather _be dead."

Apparently unconcerned about the outraged expression on the Master's face, Sarah turned around to look at the Doctor with a slight smile.

"Good luck," she said simply, noting the Master's grip already tightening on that weapon he was holding- at least it didn't seem to be his old TCE; the last thing Sarah wanted to be _shrunk_ to death- before she said her last sentence. "And Martha's doing _brilliantly_, Doctor."

She wished she could say more, of course, but with the Master and a clearly-insane Rose standing mere inches away from her she didn't dare tell the Doctor that she was aware of the full details of his and Martha's plan to defeat the Master; as grateful as she was to see that brief smile appear on a face that had never looked more defeated even when Davros was torturing her and Harry, what she'd just said was pushing her luck more than she was comfortable with…

Then something struck her in the chest, and Sarah Jane knew nothing more.

* * *

As the woman who had been one of his closest friends across at least two of his incarnations- his seventh and eighth selves had spent far too little time with her to really call her a _close _friend, even if they'd both enjoyed the meetings (Assuming Sarah even remembered them; with the Council and the Faction erased would those encounters have even happened any more?)- fell to the ground before him, the Doctor could only clench his fists and glare over at the Master.

Every time the Master turned the laser screwdriver against another friend of his, the Doctor could barely restrain the desire to scream in rage at the loss of another of his family; only the knowledge that they would be saved when Martha completed her mission had stopped him from taking action before now…

"What did she mean by that?" the Master asked, turning to look at him and breaking his train of thought. "How could _she _know Martha Jones? I checked the TARDIS databanks; you and her _never_…"

His voice trailed off as an explanation occurred to him, prompting a slight smile as he glanced back at the Doctor. "But you didn't visit Miss Smith _then_; Miss Jones went to her after escaping _here_ for some reason, didn't she?"

As though the question had been a cue, the Master walked over to crouch down opposite the Doctor, smirking casually at the other man as he did so. "Any chance you'll be willing to answer _that _little question, Doctor? After all, you've just lost a _very _dear friend; do you _really _want to know who else I can still find out there?"

"I've only got… one thing… to say to you…" the Doctor said, his voice low as he stared at his former friend. "I-"

"BZZT!" the Master said, sitting rapidly back up and holding out one hand in a 'stop' gesture. "Sorry, wrong answer, no time for _that _now; we're going to have to move on to our next event!"

With that, he turned around and walked towards the door, casually turning as he left the room to smile at Rose before departing.

As soon as the Master had vanished from view, Rose turned to look at him with a broad smile.

"You see?" she said, walking over to crouch down slightly in front of him, an almost fanatical smile on her face as she stared into his eyes with an expression that was probably intended to be seductive. "You're willing to let _everyone _else die to maintain your 'moral high ground', but you _sent me away _to save my life! _I'm _more important to you-"

"I was protecting you… from a confrontation… where death… seemed inevitable; I would… have done the same… for anyone… who was there," the Doctor practically spat out as he stared at Rose. "And right now… there is _nothing_… I can do… to save Sarah… or the others; you… would kill them… eventually… even if I… agreed with you… so I see… no point… in asking you… to let them live…"

He paused for breath for a brief moment, trying to collect himself for what he was about to say next, before glaring at Rose with a renewed intensity. "You kill… without regret, Rose Saxon; how… would _Jackie _feel… about what… you've become?"

For a moment, as Rose flinched back from the Doctor's words, he entertained a brief hope that he'd struck a chord, only for that hope to swiftly die as Rose stared at him with a renewed desperation.

"Mum just wanted me to settle back into a normal life; her opinion doesn't _matter _to me, Doctor," she said, reaching out to gently caress his cheek (How she could do that one time and slap him the next the Doctor would never fully understand; her moods could vary randomly from one day to the other). "She didn't understand why I wanted to travel with you in the first place; why should she have _any _say in-"

"_I _don't… _understand_," the Doctor growled at her, jerking his head back slightly to force her hand away as he glared at her. "_Nothing_… can excuse… what you've done… Rose Tyler… and no amount… of death… will make me… change my mind…"

Once again, Rose didn't bother replying to the Doctor' rejection; she simply stood up, shaking her head in a pitying fashion, and then walked out of the room, leaving the Doctor alone with his thought.

_Hurry, Martha_… he whispered in his mind.

* * *

AN 2: For those wondering about the meetings the Doctor reflected on after Sarah's death, Sarah met the Seventh Doctor in "Bullet Time", where she was involved in his efforts to help a crashed alien ship escape Earth before it was destroyed by the Cortez Project- a renegade branch of UNIT that believed all alien presences on Earth were an automatic threat as they could destroy our way of life- and the Eighth Doctor in "Interference" when investigating a group called the Remote who were apparently selling advanced weapons to the UN. However, given that both encounters were at least partly the result of the actions of the Doctor's time-active enemies the Council of Eight ("Sometime Never") and Faction Paradox ("The Ancestor Cell")- both of whom were essentially erased from existence by the Doctor's actions in their final confrontations with each other-, I'm assuming that Sarah no longer remembers these meetings completely as for her they technically didn't happen, hence why she acted in "School Reunion" as though she hadn't seen the Doctor since he left her in "The Hand of Fear" (The meeting in "The Five Doctors" didn't count becaue she spent most of her time in that story with the _Third_ Doctor, and nobody ever clarified that the Fifth Doctor was a _later _Doctor than the one she knew)


	27. The Boat Back to England

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: This chapter takes place around a month after the lat one, looking at Martha as she prepares to cross the ocean and return to Britain (It's not my longest- more of a filler, really; had a bit of trouble coming up with an explanation for how Martha could arrive at the coast of England in that stupid rowboat, and I'm still not certain about what I came up with-, but I think the sooner we can get onto "LotTL" the happier everyone will be, eh?)

Broken Faith

Standing in the small house close to the piere where the boat to take her to England was being prepared, Martha allowed herself a brief wistful glance out of the nearest window to stare back at the country that had been her home- in the sense that she had spent a significant period of time living within its borders- for the past month or so as she prepared to leave it.

In some ways, America had been the easiest and the hardest continent to travel across; while the Master had spent a great deal of his time and attention looking around Europe for her, America had managed to come through the Toclafane assault with comparatively le damage than any country in Europe. As a result, while America had lost most of its obvious weapons in the initial Toglafane assault- all major military bases had been destroyed and the Internet no longer functioned, among other details-, after that the Master had tended to leave them alone beyond the general 'inspection', making it easier for some people to use concealed cars and other methods of transportation in order to take her from one area to another.

While it did mean that it was slightly easier for Martha to get from one city to another in a relatively short amount of time- she tended to spend a bit of time sleeping in the cars her contacts provided for her, as transportation by night tended to be more straightforward-, on the other hand it meant that her travel time was more limited, as she could only safely travel by night to limit the Toclafanes' opportunities to spot her- 'security' over America tended to be more 'lax' in the dark-, and even then the cars had to be certain of finding somewhere to hide when daylight came…

Then, of course, there was the information she'd received from the resistance about a Professor Docherty back in England; apparently, the woman was reported to have access to the technology she'd need to analyse a disc she'd picked up during her time in South Africa- she'd heard reports of a Toclafane having been defeated in that area and had gone to check it out, taking the disc containing the information gathered from the damaged Toclafane with her in case she got the chance to use it-, and it was even speculated that Docherty had access to what she'd need to use that information to take down a Toclafane for more information…

The problem lay in the fact that, according to the resistance, Docherty's son had been captured by the Master and was being used as a bargaining chip to force her- and she was only one of many agents the Master had looking- to keep an eye out for any news of Martha Jones returning to England.

It wasn't so much Docherty's motives that were the problem- Martha could hardly blame a woman for wanting to do everything she could to save her child-; it was mainly the fact that she was going to be using those motives as her only hope of getting back to the Doctor in time for their plan to go into action.

If she wasn't up on the _Valiant _when the Doctor defeated the Master…

Admittedly, she still had some trouble working out why the Doctor had asked her to do something like this over the course of the last year- she trusted that he had a reason, of course, but that didn't mean she didn't wish she knew _why _she was going through all this-, but if the Doctor told her to be on the _Valiant _when the time came, she was equally certain he had a reason for it.

In some ways, it would almost be a relief; after everything she'd been through since this whole mess started- the destruction of Japan alone would be enough to haunt her nightmares for several years to come, she was sure-, it would be a relief to know that it was nearly over.

She had the disc in her backpack, along with the fake 'gun' she'd developed with Professor Chesterton's help all those months ago- the cover story wasn't perfect but it should stand up to casual scrutiny, which was all Martha would have to deal with; given the current situation people would take any hope they could get so long as the plan made some kind of sense-; all she could do now was wait…

"Miss Jones?" a voice said from behind her. Glancing back, Martha smiled slightly at the sight of Miss Brown- she'd declined to reveal her first name, and Martha hadn't seen a need to press the issue-, the owner of the boat she was about to use, standing in the door of the small house, her long dark hair framing a face where the lines of age added rather than detracted from her beauty, her body evidently still in good shape underneath her jeans and shirt.

"Yes?" Martha asked, standing up as she looked at her current host; while she was looking for a boat to England, Miss Brown had run into her on the pier, and, after introductions had been made, Miss Brown had assured Martha that she'd be able and willing to provide her with transportation to return to England, subsequently providing her with the hut to rest in while she got the boat organised (Although Martha was only slightly ashamed to admit that she'd dozed rather than slept in case of a last-minute betrayal; as pleasant company as Miss Brown had seemed, trust wasn't something she could afford this close to completing her mission for the Doctor).

"The boat's almost ready," Miss Brown said, smiling slightly as she indicated the other end of the pier. "The crew just need you in it- and one last check-over to make sure everything's working properly- and we're ready when you are."

"Thanks," Martha said, nodding briefly at the older woman as she stood up and the two of them began to walk towards the other end of the pier. "How did you even manage to get a boat in the first place? I mean, after the first wave of Toclafane destroyed most of our boats or cars…"

"I spent a lot of time travelling after college; after leaving my mom and stepdad while we were on holiday, things between us were… never the same when I got back," Miss Brown said, shrugging slightly as a brief, haunted expression flashed across her face before she pushed it aside. "Anyway, I picked up the boat as part of my inheritance when my step-father passed away- it was more out of a lack of anyone else to give it to, really; he and my mom never had any kids of their own when they were married, he never married again after they divorced, and there wasn't any other family left to get it anyway-, and I just kept it around here in case I ever needed it; before you came here it had been in the boathouse ever since I got it with its sails bundled up, so it probably escaped the Toclafanes' notice."

As they approached the boat in question- a decently-white yacht with damaged paint and sails that looked like they'd been repaired more than once, along with a crew that looked as though they'd seen better days (Although the last wasn't anyone's fault; after the Master came along things like washing stopped being that important)- Miss Brown smiled slightly wistfully as she studied it before looking back over at Martha with an apologetic shrug. "It's not in the best condition, and I'd recommend switching to the lifeboat Howard kept at the rear when you're approaching England to actually get to the coast- the Master's watching the coastline like a hawk; anything larger than a rowing-boat out there and the Toclafane will be on it like a ton of bricks, according to the reports-, but it should get the job done so long as you're careful."

"I'll keep that in mind," Martha said, nodding in understanding at the other woman before holding out her hand. "Thanks for this, by the way; I… well, saying I appreciate it's an understatement, but…"

"Don't mention it," Miss Brown replied, smiling warmly back at Martha as she shook the offered hand. "I've always tried to do the right thing when I can; at least this time around I'm risking a method of transportation I _don't _need, rather than one I _do_."

Martha briefly wondered what the other woman meant by that, but pushed that thought aside as she walked down the small ladder leading to the yacht, the ladder being taken away as Martha headed for the main saloon in the centre while the crew prepared to cast off.

"Oh, and just one last thing?" Miss Brown called over, smiling briefly at Martha as the young medical student turned around to look at her latest benefactor. "When you see the Doctor, make sure he knows that I forgave him for his mistake a long time ago."

With that, Miss Brown turned around and began to walk back along the pier, Martha so temporarily stunned at the American woman's last words that she didn't even realise she had lost the opportunity to ask any more questions until Miss Brown had already reached the other end of the pier, the boat already on the move and cutting off Martha's chances to ask for more information as they embarked on their journey.

Despite that abrupt parting, even as she began her journey back to where everything had begun all those long months ago, Martha couldn't help but smile slightly.

Even to the last, the Doctor's old companions were still finding ways to fight back against the Master, no matter how long it had been since they'd travelled with him (And given the 'average' age of the people the Doctor invited to travel with him- given that Mrs Jackson and Tegan Jovanka would have both been in approximately their twenties when they started travelling with the Doctor- it must have been a while since she'd left him in Miss Brown's case) or how long they'd spent living under the Master's rule.

_Rose may have let him down_, Martha reflected to herself- she wished she didn't feel so happy about that, but after all the emotional frustration Rose had indirectly caused her due to the Doctor's initial grief over her loss, she felt she was entitled to feel a _bit _smug at the knowledge that Rose wasn't as 'perfect' as she'd initially seemed from the Doctor's stories-, _but the rest of us will _never _abandon the Doctor_.

Even with that thought of all those other companions she'd met over the last few months- companions who she could see as friends even if they _hadn't _been helping her on her current 'mission', and who had always seen the Doctor as a friend without asking for anything more than someone to show them the wonders the universe had to offer-, she couldn't help but wish- even if it was only with a small part of her- that he could have maybe seen _her _as something more…

It was ridiculous and pathetic, she knew- he'd spent so many years travelling and had no way of knowing what _Rose _had done to attract his attention _that _way; how could he ever see her as more than a friend, no matter what she might dream about him saying to her?-, but she couldn't help but keep coming back to her _own _feelings for him; why was it that every _other _companion she'd met could be fine with seeing their Doctors as friends- or parental figures, in the case of the original Doctor; he had been travelling with his _granddaughter _back when he started, after all-, and yet _she _had to go and want more from him than he was willing to give…?

* * *

AN 2: Just to clarify, 'Miss Brown' is actually the Fifth and Sixth Doctor's companion Peri, an American botany student who travelled with those two Doctors after her stepfather refused to allow her to go on holiday with some backpackers she'd met in their hotel (There were hints that Peri's stepfather abused her sexually in later novels, but nothing was ever explicitly confirmed) and she ended up in the TARDIS when the Doctor's current companion Turlough rescued her from drowning while trying to swim back from the boat her stepfather had left her on to stop her leaving. She and the Doctor parted company during the events of "Trial of a Time Lord", when the Doctor was pulled away by the Time Lords- currently led by a renegade High Council- to be put on trial for interference in the affairs of the universe; faked evidence produced at the trial suggested that Peri had been killed when she was used as a new host body as part of an experiment in mind transference, but the Master later claimed that this evidence was faked to put the Doctor emotionally off-balance and Peri had really married a warrior king she met during that crisis. Peri's survival was later confirmed in the novel "Bad Therapy", where she was reunited with the Seventh Doctor, the two reconciling over his apparent abandonment of her (The Doctor explaining that he had assumed at the time she was happy and later got too caught up in other things to actually check himself) before he took her back to her home time; she didn't mention her time with the Doctor to Martha in detail because she felt it was too complicated to cover in the brief time window they had available to them, and she didn't feel that now was the time to get into her old issues with the Time Lord


	28. The Oldest Friend

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: This chapter takes place approximately a week after the last one, set while Martha's still in the yacht taking her back to England with her location thus being a mystery to the Master

Broken Faith

Sitting silently in his tent as he glanced at the clock on the wall, the Doctor allowed himself a brief smile at the thought of what was coming up soon.

If his old friend's flair for the melodramatic remained, then the one-year-anniversary of his 'conquest' of Earth- if you could call it that, really; the Toclafane had prevented any chance of military resistance in their initial assault but 'Mr Saxon' had still been democratically elected no matter how rigged the election was- was almost certainly the moment when he'd launch those ships he'd been having the population of Earth construct for the better part of the past year; the symbolism of it would almost certainly greatly amuse his old friend, regarding it as the next 'stage' in the 'cycle' of expansion.

Admittedly, the Doctor had been hearing rumours among the guards about some of the activities of the local resistance- just because the psychic network made it harder to stand up to the Master didn't mean people weren't trying _something_-, but given that the Master hadn't shown any specific signs of frustration at this latest turn of events he was fairly certain that nothing vital had been damaged yet…

Still, if his and Martha's plan paid off, then it didn't matter whether or not the Master's resources had taken any real damage; what _did _matter was that, if all went according to plan, Martha should be here soon enough…

The sound of the conference room door opening prompted the Doctor to glance up just in time to see the Master enter the room, looking at him with a slightly casual smirk that did little to express the satisfaction he was practically shouting out to the Doctor's telepathic senses (The Doctor wasn't sure if that was deliberate or unintentional- a sign of the Master's ever-slipping grasp on his sanity, perhaps; this new incarnation _did _seem slightly less stable than previous bodies had been-, but quickly concluded that it didn't matter much; either way he didn't particularly want to hear it and the implication of the Master being mad wasn't something new to him).

"You might like to know that all's going according to plan as far as the launch schedule's concerned," the Master said, smirking nonchalantly as he glanced over at his old friend. "Just give it a week or so, and everything's ready to begin the second Time Lord Empire, where we unite with your precious humans just like you always wanted."

"I never… wanted… _this_," the Doctor said, his voice so low that it was practically a growl as he glared at the Master. "They'll fight you… they'll _never _become you…"

The Master only tutted slightly at the Doctor's defiance.

"It's almost pathetic, really; here you are, all this evidence right in front of you- even _without _the Toclafane as proof-, and you just won't accept it even when you've seen them," he said, a pitying expression on his face. "They've lost-"

"And they _keep_… on fighting," the Doctor retorted. "They won't give in to you… the Toclafane only did it… when everything else was gone… surrender's not the _human _thing to do…"

"Yes, they _do _seem to have an annoying habit of being unable to get the message, don't they?" the Master countered, smirking as he looked at the Doctor. "Your old 'friends' were so blinded by their 'faith' in you that they let themselves get killed, what pathetic little resistance is left refuses to get the picture that they _can't _win against me…"

"Resistance?" the Doctor repeated, raising an eyebrow slightly as he looked up at the Master; this was the first time he'd specifically referenced any kind of organised resistance without trying to force him to provide information about what they might do next.

"Oh yeah, another factory's been damaged by bombing 'runs'," the Master said, shaking his head slightly as he looked over at the Doctor in a voice that suggested he was trying to convince the village idiot that the sky wasn't green. "It's not really going to _delay _anything, of course- I've still got enough ships left over to make a decent impact when I finally get out there; saving a few systems for later isn't going to matter much-, but…."

His voice trailed off as he looked at the Doctor, a small smile on the other Time Lord's face as he stared at his old enemy. "What?"

"You can't win, can you?" the Doctor said, the slight grin remaining on his face as he looked at the Master, his initial mood of resignation broken by this latest news. "You thought breaking Rose would break _me_… and yet, every day, on this… twisted Earth of yours… they're out there… those ordinary humans you never understood… doing everything they can to stop your domination of their world…"

"Actually, that brings me neatly back to the main reason I came here," the Master said, snapping his fingers as though it had genuinely just slipped his mind. "We _just _caught the last surviving high muck-a-muck member of the local resistance group- he was the only person to walk out alive from their little 'bombing run' of the facilities-, and I thought you'd like to say hello before I finish him off."

Before the Doctor could ask what the Master meant by that comment, the other Time Lord had stood up and snapped his fingers, the doors to the conference room opening to reveal Rose standing outside the room with a gun pointing at the back of a man in a well-worn uniform- the uniform looked like it had been old even before the Toclafane attack, although the lack of opportunities to clean it after the attack definitely wouldn't have helped much- with a bag over his head and one leg showing a prominent limp.

The Doctor's blood ran cold at the sight.

_It can't be_… he thought, as Rose forced the man to walk forward by pressing the weapon into his back, the new arrival stumbling slightly as he walked due to his bad leg. _He couldn't be_… _he's retired… he's _safe…

But even before Rose pulled the bag off his head, revealing the familiar- albeit bearded- features of the former commander of the British branch of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce- Unified Intelligence Taskforce had never sounded quite right to him-, the Doctor knew that nothing could have stopped his old friend from taking action at a time like this.

"_Brigadier_…" he said, staring in shock at his old friend, as the other man looked at him in momentary confusion before nodding in understanding.

"Doctor?" Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart said at last, a slight smile on his face as he looked at his old scientific advisor. "You _have _changed; I think this is the first time we've actually looked our ages since I met you…"

"Actually… the Master… did this; I'm… normally younger… in this body…" the Doctor replied, unable to stop a slight grin spreading across his face at the sight of his old ally despite the stiffness in his limbs as he looked at his old friend. "Then again… age never stopped you… did it?"

"Stopped him from doing what; killing the likes of the Destroyer or that 'Hanne' woman during that whole thing with the Fourth Reich?" the Master asked, smirking casually over at the Doctor before he turned to look at the Brigadier. "You just kept on going against everything he claims to be in favour of whenever it suits you, despite the fact that… oh wait; you _don't _start blaming him for it, do you?"

As he processed what his old friend had just said to him, the Doctor looked at the Master with renewed uncertainty.

Where was his old friend going with this…?

"You know, it's one detail I've never _quite _understood about you; you talk all about _not _killing people, and yet when I first met you after we left Gallifrey you were travelling with a Jacobite who _still _carried his weapons, and then you spent your entire exile working with G.I. Joe here's little taskforce just because they made it easy for you to get the stuff you wanted," the Master said, his voice so casual that he could almost have been discussing the weather rather than his enemy's morality. "One of the more _obvious _ways you keep on proving you don't practise what you preach when you talk about not killing people…"

"I showed them another way…" the Doctor muttered, glaring back at the Master.

"And yet, in the end, even the _pacifists _turn into killers in the end," the Master continued, smirking at the Doctor. "Do you want to know who blew up those factories, Doctor; the ones populated by nothing more than my own conscripted foot-soldiers-, in a pointless attempt to stop me recreating our old glory?"

The Doctor didn't answer with words, but his cold glare at the Master seemed to be all that the other Time Lord was looking for as he continued to talk. "Dear old Sergeant Benton- or was he a Colonel or something now; I never could keep track of rank- and the delightful Miss Jo Grant; sneaked into the factory as common workers, casual as you like, and then, as far as I can determine, they set off this plastic explosive they'd carried in strapped to their bodies like it was the latest fashion, creating a blast that pretty much annihilated _everyone _in the factories in a matter of seconds."

The Doctor's eyes widened in shock.

_Jo_…

She'd… _killed herself_?

The bright young woman who'd been so eager to learn from him… the woman who'd been willing to sacrifice herself to stop _him _from dying… had killed herself to _kill others_?

He'd always hoped that the incident when he'd met Jo during that mess with Corporal Hayes and the Tractites in his eighth incarnation when she'd killed those Tractites had just been a panicked response in the heat of the moment, but something like _this_…

"Struck a nerve there, have I?" the Master asked, smiling once again at his old enemy. "All that talk about your 'abhorrence of violence'… all those times you offered to spare my life when I would have killed you… and in the end, your only legacy to the universe will be the companions you leave behind, each one of them willing to _kill _other people and die in the name of your oh-so-righteous crusade against everyone who doesn't think like you."

"It's not _like _that…" the Doctor said, staring in frustration at the Master. "I _help _them…"

"How many have actually died because of you, Doctor?" the Master asked, smirking as he stared at him (For a moment the Doctor was reminded of his confrontation with Marnal when the elderly Time Lord tried to punish him for Gallifrey's destruction, accusing him of ruining Sam's life, but pushed that aside; Manal, for all his prejudices, had at least been trying to do what he thought was 'right' by finding some kind of justice for Gallifrey's loss- and the whole thing with Sam's grave had only been a trap to get Fitz and Trix to leave him alone in the end; Sam herself was still alive-, but the Master was just insane). "The noble Doctor, always refusing to kill others himself, never carrying weapons unless he's absolutely certain _all _other options have been used up… and yet, wherever he goes, even if he walks away, his companions either turn up dead or turn into killers themselves."

The Doctor's blood ran almost cold at what the Master was saying.

It couldn't be…

"It's not… _like _that…" he muttered. "They want… to _help_…"

"Isn't that the same thing you condemned _me _for doing?" Rose cut in, looking pointedly at the Doctor. "If you're willing to allow _them _to get away with that, why would you condemn me for doing this? Just because _you _don't agree with it, that makes it wrong to kill?"

"Funny thing, really," the Master added, smiling nonchalantly at the Doctor. "You berate me all the time for killing people, but in the end you're always willing to let your friends get away with murder when it's benefiting _your _'cause'…"

Even as the Master spoke, the Doctor couldn't shake the memories his words inspired…

_The innocent slave girl Katarina, already believing herself to be dead and heading for the Place of Perfection, allowing herself to be sucked out of an airlock to give him and Steven the chance to stop the Daleks…_

_Sara Kingdom- resolved to achieve revenge for the death of her brother due to the Daleks' manipulations-, aging to death due to the Daleks' Time Destructor as he watched, already too weak to intervene…_

_Adric, the genius teenager who had nearly died in a pointless attempt to 'prove' himself, falling apart of old age in the Victorian era because he tried to bring the TARDIS back…_

_Kamelion, all his efforts to grow beyond his programming hampered by his automatic status as a slave, begging for death to stop the Master using him again…_

_Claire Aldwych, after displaying a keen interest in travel and the mysteries he discovered, slain as part of a Nazi plot decades before her birth that she should never have been involved in, preventing any hope he had of getting to know her more…_

_The foolish but friendly Jeremy, his memory taken from him by the Doctor's own mistake, transformed into a ruthless killer due to the Doctor's lack of concern…_

_Roz Forrester, a more heroic and noble person than even she knew, dying to end the reign of a corrupt Empire while the Doctor was busy elsewhere with another crisis…_

_Liz Shaw, a friend and assistant during one of the most difficult periods of his life, learning to cope while trapped on Earth after so long wandering freely wherever he wished, killed by her own body as it transformed due to exposure to alien toxins…_

_Dodo Chaplet, the girl whose youthful enthusiasm to see the world had led her into involvement with some of his most brutal encounters, condemned to insanity by his own lack of concern before being slain by the Master's agents seeking information on a Doctor who'd died long ago…_

_The one-time killer C'Rizz, sacrificing himself in a last-ditch attempt to preserve a strange planet in a strange universe- neither of which had ever even been his- before he'd truly had the chance to see this new world for himself…_

_Gallifrey- the world that had given him life, no matter how little he might have really connected with _anyone _on it-, destroyed by his own hand, the world vaporised in an instant, Leela- the savage warrior with the keen mind and a strong abhorrence of evil- and Romana- the former aristocrat who sought new challenges after seeing the universe beyond herself- burning with it…_

_Oh God_… the Doctor thought, barely aware of the ever-broadening smirk on the Master's face as he found himself increasingly trapped within his own thoughts, spreading out from those who had died while travelling with him to those occasions where his companions had proved willing to kill others. _He's right… he's right… they all died while I lived… they all became killers… they _all _leave me ready to kill…_

"You can stop that _right _there, Doctor; I am _not _going to have you start blaming yourself- _or _us- for the choices we make!" the Brigaider's voice suddenly yelled out, the authoritative tone of his old 'commanding officer'- the Brigadier himself had admitted on later meetings that he'd always only considered himself the Doctor's superior on paper- back in his third incarnation cutting through the Doctor's train of thought to stop it in its tracks. "What we did was wrong, I'm not denying that, but with the Archangel Network limiting the possibilities to gather large-scale resistance against the Master and no way to eliminate it, all we can do is try and fight him on a smaller scale… and in _this _case, as much as we hated doing it, we could see no other way to do _any _kind of damage to the Master's regime without _somebody_ dying-"

"And you honestly think _that _'absolves' you in the Doctor's eyes?" the Master cut in, smirking at the Brigadier. "In the end, you're still just a soldier creating a bodycount; you _killed _people in his name-!"

"We are also willing- far _more _than willing- to _die _in his name," the Brigadier countered, glaring at the Master as he spoke. "And we do so… because we know, with absolute certainty, that the Doctor would do the same for us."

He turned back to look at his friend, a sympathetic smile on his face as he began to address a topic that he knew his friend would find difficult even as his resolute gaze made it clear that he believed that the Doctor had to hear this. "Mr Krenier told me about what happened to your people when we picked him and Miss MacMillan up after that incident with the Vore, Doctor; when you fired that weapon at Gallifrey… and I am _truly _sorry you had to make that decision; nobody should have to face that kind of choice… to end the Time War… you didn't believe you were going to survive the blast either, did you?"

"No…" the Doctor replied, nodding thoughtfully even as he was clearly uncertain where his old friend was going with this; while he knew his old friend wouldn't bring up Gallifrey's destruction for no reason, he couldn't quite guess what that reason could be…

"The same thing applied to Benton and Miss Grant; we knew they could not survive, but there was no other way to do _any_ kind of damage," the Brigadier concluded, nodding slightly at the Doctor as the Time Lord's eyes widened briefly in understanding before the old soldier turned back to glare at the Master. "Whatever you might perceive as the truth, the Doctor does _not_ turn us into soldiers in his little crusade, 'Master'; he inspires us to become people who, having seen the evil in the universe, know that it must be fought… but people who, simultaneously, refuse to _defeat _that evil by becoming it."

"And what do you call killing _hundreds _of innocent people with your own little home-made bombs if it's not _evil_?" Rose countered, glaring scathingly at the Brigadier as though he was babbling nonsense.

"Ah, Miss… _Tyler_, wasn't it?" the Brigadier asked, turning his head slightly to look critically at her despite the gun she was still aiming at the back of his head, the years almost falling away from him as the authoritative soldier he'd been in the past glared resolutely at the Doctor's former companion. "Firstly, after hearing about what you have witnessed in your time with the Doctor, I have to tell you that I am far from impressed at your actions; I would have thought that time with the Doctor would have taught you better than to side with the _Master_ in anything."

"Secondly?" Rose asked, not even bothering to hesitate long enough to at least give the impression that she was considering what the Brigadier had said to her.

"Secondly," the Brigadier replied, evidently deciding to put the issue of Rose's attitude aside, "what Miss Grant and Colonel Benton did would only be _truly_ evil if they had committed such an action and sought to live afterwards; the fact that we _only_ resorted to such an action when we were certain it would result in our own deaths should make the distinction between us and your… _husband_… clear."

After a moment's silence as the Brigadier and Rose stared at each other, the Brigadier finished his sentence, his gaze fixed on Rose as he spoke. "No matter what you might believe about his methods, the Master would kill millions on little more than a whim for no other reason than that he wanted to, but we…"

The Brigadier sighed, collecting himself briefly before he spoke again. "We could _not _live with ourselves for causing death on that scale… no matter how certain we were that it was the only course of action we could take that would not result in more people dying later. _I_ made a mistake once in the early days of my friendship with the Doctor, when I destroyed the headquarters of a race who had already surrendered; looking back, I still feel that they may not have agreed to our terms, but I should have tried harder to find some peaceful resolution… because _that _is what the Doctor would do, and what all of us should do in that kind of position."

The Doctor's eyes widened at the Brigadier's comment (Although he also appreciated the reference to the Silurian incident; that particular crisis had always been a tricky issue for the two of them in his third incarnation, even if they'd made peace over that during that affair with C-19 when he'd given the Silurian Triad a chance to achieve a peaceful resolution).

He'd always tried to inspire his companions to be better- he even liked to think he'd succeeded on a few occasions; Jo alone had definitely improved from the somewhat scatter-brained assistant she'd been in the beginning-, but to hear the Brigadier- the man who'd known him over at least seven bodies, and been with him for almost the entirety of his third life- actually confirm that his time with him had made him consider less violent methods…

How could he _not _have realised what the Brigadier had pointed out for himself?

He'd been so focused on the fact that Jo and Benton may have killed innocent people with their actions- there _were _those out there who followed the Master without much need of coercion, although the Archangel Network probably contributed to their willingness to work for him- that he'd forgotten to note the most important detail about them; they _hadn't lived_.

As the Brigadier had pointed out, his old companions were _not _the heartless killers the Master was attempting to convince him they'd become in their time with him; they might have destroyed some of his factories, but they had only done so because, at the time, they could see no other way to do any kind of damage to the Master's plans, and even then they had _deliberately_ chosen a course of action that would require _them _to die as well in order for it to succeed…

_They're not killers_… the Doctor reflected, a small smile spreading across his face as he reflected on the Brigadier's latest point. _They still _care _about the lives they end… it's only ever when there's no other way…_

Then his expression fell as he remembered those who'd had no choice in their sacrifices; Claire burning alongside Adolf Hitler to conceal the last secret of the Second World War, Dodo driven to the point of insanity before being killed by the Master's agents, Liz's body turning against her as Agent Orange turned the water into acid…

"And as for those who might die _during _their travels with you…" the Brigadier added, his eyes still fixed on the Doctor- clearly he remembered Claire's demise just as keenly as the Doctor did, to say nothing of what he must have read about Liz's death in the UNIT files, and was determined to cut that off before it could go any further-, "in the end, everyone who accompanied you made their choices, Doctor; you cannot blame yourself for what others decide to do themselves. If you could choose who lived and died everywhere you went…"

The old soldier shrugged slightly, a warm smile of familiarity on his face as he studied his old friend. "Well, where would be the point in anything if you had that kind of power and everything lasted forever? Wouldn't really mean much, would it?"

"Quite…" the Doctor muttered, allowing himself a slight smile as he looked at the Brigadier, grateful for his old friend's comfort. "Thank you… Alistair…"

"NO!" Rose yelled, her finger clenching on the gun in her hand in frustration before she realised that she was still holding it, the gun sending a bullet straight through the Brigadier's heart as it moved from his neck downwards before she'd even registered it.

For a moment, the Doctor and his oldest friend could only stare in shock at the hole in the Brigadier's chest, Rose equally stunned at the blood emerging from his back, and then the Brigadier's knees hit the floor as his legs began to give out, followed by the rest of him.

The Master shrugged.

"Well, that saves me having to set up a firing squad for him anyway," he said, looking briefly at the body before glancing over at the Doctor with a smirk. "Looks like you can chalk up another old friend on that list of people who died for believing in you."

With that, the Master turned around and walked out of the room, leaving Rose staring in shock at the body in front of her before she turned to look urgently at the Doctor.

"I… I didn't _mean _to do that…" she said, looking at him with renewed desperation. "It was an accident… I forgot that the gun was there… I didn't _mean _to-"

"You _killed _him…" the Doctor said, clenching his fists without even realising that he was doing it as he glared at the woman he'd once thought he'd loved and now could barely imagine how he'd ever cared about her. "The only man… to have ever met _eight _of me… the man who gave me a home… when I was exiled to Earth… the man who stood by me… through my third regeneration… who believed in me… no matter _what _trouble I caused… _and you killed him_."

"It was an _accident_-" Rose began.

"You had a gun… aimed at his back; it's not… _that _much… of an accident," the Doctor countered, looking at Rose. "You reacted on instinct… and instinct made you _kill_… my oldest friend… because he made a _point_."

"Well… so what if I did; how does that make me any worse than _them_?" Rose began, looking almost tearfully at the Doctor, once again pleading for justification as she waved a desperate hand at the Brigadier's rapidly-cooling corpse. "It doesn't matter what he said; in the end, they killed because they _wanted _to… they were just like me…"

"_NEVER_… even _THINK_… of comparing yourself… to _them_," the Doctor practically spat at her, grief pushed aside by his own outrage. "They gave their _lives_… to try and help _someone_… out there; you… killed _millions_ of innocent… on nothing more… than some twisted belief… you were 'helping'… a race that… would _never _have accepted this…"

For a moment he could only sit in silence, gasping for break as he glared at Rose, before he finally spoke again. "Your husband's reign… will _end_, Rose… and at this rate… I can't guarantee… what will happen… to you…"

As Rose stared back at him, her face still stained with tears of shock at what she'd just done to the Brigadier, the Doctor turned around and crawled back into his tent, wishing that the thing was big enough- and that he was strong enough- for him to storm through the door to better convey his increasingly-low opinion of Rose.

He didn't know precisely how things between him and Rose had reached this stage- they'd once been so close and now it seemed like he couldn't even _see_ her without wanting to yell at her a little more each day-, but he knew one thing for certain; when this whole sorry mess was over…

No matter how insane she was by this point, as much as he was ashamed to admit to it, there was a part of the Doctor that felt that Rose would almost deserve what was going to happen to her at the end…

No matter how unintentional it had been, she had killed his oldest friend.

Before this was over, the Doctor was going to make _sure _Rose understood his opinion of what she had become…


	29. Back in Britain

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: The moment you've all been waiting for; "Last of the Time Lords" will now begin!

Broken Faith

As the boat drew towards the coastline, Peri's yacht having been left behind with a skeleton crew to escape detection while the rest of the crew took the yacht's lifeboat for the remainder of their journey, Martha almost couldn't believe it.

After almost a year travelling around the world, meeting so many past companions that she still couldn't entirely believe it, and witnessing scenes that would probably haunt her dreams for at least the next decade or so- what had happened to Japan wasn't something you could just forget-, she was finally coming 'full circle'…

She wished that she could think that the hard part was over, but in reality she knew that it was still to come; passing the Doctor's message on hadn't been easy, but at least she'd had a clear plan and a fixed idea about how to do it, no matter how long it had taken to implement.

Getting herself up to the _Valiant _before the Master began the countdown the Doctor had predicted…

Even without the issue that she had no way of being certain whether the 'Professor Docherty' she was looking for would actually provide the Master with her location, she didn't even know if the Doctor was still alive; one telepathic message- that may or may not have been a dream- several months ago wasn't exactly any proof that he was still around _now_…

As a light appeared in the distance- the pre-arranged signal for their British contact to guide them to the coast-, one of the crew flashed a torch back at the source, the boat swiftly drawing up against the shores a few moments later.

As the crew got out to push the boat back out- the less clues they left for the Master the better-, Martha hurried up towards the contact, the light he still held swiftly revealing a man in his late twenties dressed in a thick brown jacket- given the Master's lack of interest in providing his people with creature comforts almost everyone dressed warmly these days- and a dark, thinner jacket underneath it, with a beard that looked like it hadn't been shaved for a few days, staring almost solemnly at her.

"What's your name, then?" Martha asked as she stopped in front of him, after the man made no effort to introduce himself.

"Tom Milligan," the man replied, briefly looking her over before he continued. "No need to ask who you are, the famous Martha Jones. How long since you were last in Britain?"

"Three hundred and sixty-five days," Martha replied, rounding up almost automatically; it would actually be a bit less than that according to the dates, but allowing for the fact that she'd have gained a few days going around the world the way she had it was close enough. "It's been a long year."

She shrugged slightly. "Anyway, enough of that; we'd better get moving."

"Right," Milligan said, turning around to walk back along the beach, Martha quickly falling into step alongside him. "So what's the plan?"

"This Professor Docherty; I need to see her," Martha said, cutting directly to the chase (From what she'd heard from the resistance, Tom wouldn't know about Docherty's son, so she'd need to stick to the essential facts). "Can you get me there?"

"She works in a repair shed; Nuclear Plant Seven," Tom replied. "I can get you inside… but what's this all for? What's so important about her?"

"Sorry," Martha said briefly. "The more you know, the more you're at risk."

After a moment's silence, Milligan spoke again.

"There's a lot of people depending on you," he said, continuing to walk as he spoke. "You're a bit of a legend."

"What does the _legend_ say?" Martha asked, her fingers crossed- just as they always were when discussing this topic- that people had only passed on what they should; if the Master had even the slightest _hint _that the general population knew about the Doctor before the time was right…

"That sailed the Atlantic, walked across America, that you're the only person to get out of Japan alive," Milligan replied, glancing back at her as though trying to evaluate her thoughts on her status. "'Martha Jones', they say, 'she's gonna save the world'."

Martha couldn't help feeling briefly embarrassed at that last comment; _she _wasn't going to be saving anything…

"Bit late for that," Milligan added, half under his breath, instantly prompting Martha to lower her opinion of him; even at their worst, the resistance members she'd met in America had at least voiced _some _kind of hope, while Tom's comment sounded like he'd lost most of his already…

Negative thoughts on Milligan were halted when Martha saw his transport; a battered old truck, in decent shape but clearly not designed for the camoflagued off-road work that the Kreniers' car had been capable of.

"How come you can drive?" she asked, looking over at him in slightl surprise. "Don't you get stopped?"

"Medical staff," Milligan replied, glancing back at her with a slight smile. "Used to be in paediatrics back in the old days, but that gives me a license to travel so I can help out at the labour camps."

"Great," Martha said, allowing herself a briefly wistful smile at the recollections his comment had inspired as Milligan entered the truck. "I'm travelling with a doctor."

As soon as she'd entered the truck, Milligan started the engine, lowering his head to get a better view of the surrounding sky in case of any further Toclafane presence.

"Story goes," he continued, looking back at Martha after taking in their surroundings, "that you're the only person on Earth who can kill him. That you, and you alone, can kill the Master stone dead."

"Let's just drive," Martha said, looking briefly over at him before returning her gaze to the front of the car, making it clear that the matter was over as far as she was concerned.

Right now, whether Milligan believed that he was saying to her or not, Martha wasn't interested in hearing it; the rumours he was talking about might have been necessary to prevent the Master's agents learning about her, but she wasn't comfortable hearing _anything _that suggested she'd come all this way to kill a man.

* * *

For the next few hours, the two drove in relative silence, Milligan occasionally asking Martha what she'd seen of the rest of the world and Martha getting an update on the situation back in Britain; as far as the peoples' way of life went, it wasn't that different from anything she'd encountered around the globe- everyone restricted to the basic 'essentials' and occasionally dive-bombed by Toclafane for working too slowly-, but it was still something she'd wanted to hear.

Finally, with the sun already beginning to lower towards the other end of the horizon, Milligan- although Martha noted that she'd already begun to think of him as 'Tom' at some point during their trip- finally stopped at the bottom of a tall mountain, shrugging slightly as he indicated the nearby path.

"I need to check the route in from up there," he said, looking slightly apologetically at Martha. "We just don't have any real means of getting close to the base; most of our old entrances here have already been compromised…"

"I've been walking for most of the last year; I can take a bit more," Martha said, shrugging dismissively as she stepped out of the car before glancing back at Tom. "Come on, let's go; the sooner we find a way in, the sooner I can get this all over with."

"All right," Tom said, stepping out of the car himself as he looked grimly up at the path before them. "Just be ready; it's… well, from what I've heard, it's not pretty."

Martha didn't bother to respond to that comment- after seeing Japan's destruction, there wasn't much out there that could shock her any more-, simply starting to walk up the path after him. As they approached the top, Martha's eyes fell on a massive, elaborately-carved statue of a man in a suit instantly recognisable as the Master, prompting her to shake her head in frustration.

"All over the Earth, those things," she said, indicating the statue with a disdainful shrug; it might be intimidating, but the Master's ridiculous _need _to have all these statues of himself all over the place had left Martha wondering more than once if he was trying to compensate for something. "He's even carved himself into Mount Rushmore."

(She didn't bother to add that she only _assumed _the Master had carved himself into Mount Rushmore; one of the faces was definitely Harold Saxon's, but she couldn't be certain if the two bearded men and the figure with the apparently burnt face alongside him were actually the Master's former incarnations, and this was hardly the time to explain about the Master's ability to regenerate.)

"Best to keep down," Tom said suddenly, glancing back at her as they approached a small pile of rocks near the top of the hill. "Here we go…"

Lying on her front as she glanced over the small pile before her, Martha could only stare in silence at the sight of something that she'd only seen in brief glances up until now- in the early days of her journey the Master had only just been getting started on these things, and by the time they were nearing completion she tended to avoid them in favour of more civilian-populated areas-; a mass of rocket silos, stretching out as far as the eye could see, with large red-and-white ships sticking out of the silos, pointing at the sky as though ready to pierce it at any moment.

"The entire south coast of England, converted into shipyards," Tom explained, his voice low as he stared at the sight before them. "They bring in slave labour every morning_. _Break up cars, houses, anything, just for the metal, building a fleet out of scrap."

"You should see Russia," Martha said, her voice low as she recalled the silos she'd witnessed being constructed after parting company with Professor Chesterton; part of the reason she'd gone down to India was to avoid having to deal with the sight of these things. "That's Shipyard Number One. All the way from the Black Sea to the Bering Strait… there's a hundred _thousand _rockets ready for war."

"War?" Tom asked, looking over at Martha in confusion. "With who?"

"The rest of the universe," Martha replied simply, unable to restrain the slight '­_you-idiot_' in her tone as she looked over at Tom; after learning about aliens when the Toclafane attacked, how could he not have realised that there'd be other civilisations out there? "I've been out there, Tom! In space, before all this happened, and there's a _thousand_ different civilizations all around us with no idea of what's happening here. The Master can build weapons big enough to devastate them all-"

"You've been in space?" Tom cut in, looking at her slightly sceptically (Not that Martha could blame him; she'd recognised even as she spoke that what she'd just said about the Master's capabilities might be an exaggeration- the Master might be a Time Lord with centuries of experience behind him but he was still limited to what was available to him; the weapons before them were probably just for anything in the 'immediate' vicinity of Earth-, but it had mainly been said to make a point rather than anything else).

"Problem with that?" Martha countered, looking pointedly back at him.

"No," Tom replied, shaking his head as he looked away from her, apparently uncomfortable even as a slight smile crossed his face. "No, just, uh… wow. Anything else I should know?"

"I've met Shakespeare," Martha replied briefly.

Before she could say anything more, a sound from behind them prompted Tom and Martha to glance back, jut in time to see two Toclafane descending from the sky behind the Master's statue. Acting on instinct, Martha pressed herself as close to the ground as possible- the Toclafane might not be able to see _her _thanks to the key but they might become suspicious if she knocked over a rock or something like that- while Tom turned to face them anxiously.

"_Identify, little man_," one of the Toclafane said, its voice a deep, almost 'masculine' tone (If you could consider something the size of a basketball with no defining features to be 'masculine')

"I-I've got a license," Tom said, Martha continuing to stare silently ahead as he spoke. "Thomas Milligan, Peripatetic Medical Squad; I'm allowed to travel, I was just checking for-"

"Soon the rockets will fly and everyone will need medicine," the other Toclafane said, its voice sounding less deep than the previous speaker's while still retaining a certain masculinity. "You'll be so busy."

With that, the Toclafane laughed and flew back up into the sky, leaving Tom sighing with relief before he turned to look at her in confusion.

"But… they didn't see you," he said at last.

Smiling, Martha reached into her jacket and pulled out the TARDIS key she still wore on a string around her neck.

"How do you think I travelled the world?" she asked, indicating the key in her fingers before she stood up, indicating the path. "As long as I'm wearing this, they can't see me."

"But-" Tom began.

"Let's get back to the truck; I'll fill you in on the way," Martha said, indicating the path behind them as she began to walk, Tom swiftly following her. "Put simply, you ever wondered why anybody voted for a guy with no actual policies or political agenda to become Prime Minister back when the Master revealed himself?"

"Well…" Tom muttered, nodding uncertainly at her as they continued down the hill, "I _did _wonder why I voted for him later…"

"It's because he'd rigged it," Martha clarified, as they approached the place where they'd left their transportation. "Basically, the Master set up Archangel, that mobile network- 15 satellites around the planet, all that-, for the sole purpose of transmitting a low-level psychic field to the rest of the human race; that's how everyone got hypnotised into thinking he was Harold Saxon."

"Saxon…" Tom muttered, his tone almost wistful. "Feels like years ago…"

"But the key's tuned in to the same frequency," Martha clarified. "Makes me sort of… not invisible, just… unnoticeable."

"But… I can see you," Tom asked, looking uncertainly at her.

"That's 'cause you wanted to," Martha replied, unable to stop herself from laughing slightly at her own cover story (Even this close to the 'deadline', coupled with the low probability that _any_ of them were still alive, she wasn't going to mention anything about her encounter with what was left of Jack's team in case it gave the Master renewed incentive to find them).

"Yeah… I suppose I did," Tom said, looking briefly at the truck with a slightly embarrassed smile.

For a moment, Martha almost found herself asking if there was a Mrs Milligan, but then a memory flashed across her mind- the short Doctor with the umbrella telling her that the Doctor knew he could trust her from the moment they met, the one with the scarf assuring her that the Doctor believed in her- and she stopped herself; somehow, it didn't feel… _right_… to ask something like that- no matter how innocently it might be intended- and risk giving Tom the wrong idea with… _those _kind of thoughts about the Doctor still prominent in her mind.

"So…" Tom asked, breaking into her train of thought, "is there… someone else wanting to see you?"

Once again, the memory of the Doctor's words to her in her dream- even if that last part _had _only been a dream, she could still remember all too vividly the sight of the Doctor she knew, dressed in a seeming random selection of clothing from his other selves, apparently about to kiss her as he told her that she scared him at times- stopped Martha from responding in the negative; even if she'd tried to put thoughts of the Doctor she knew aside to focus on the mission, what he'd said to her in those brief moments when the message became a dream after his other selves had lost contact had always left her wondering if any part of it could have been real…

"There's…" she began, pausing for a moment before she sighed. "Well, at least, I _think _there's someone; it's… well, it's complicated."

Before Tom could ask what she meant by that, Martha had walked past him and opened the truck door, ending any further conversation on that topic. "Come on; I've got to find this Docherty woman."

"We'll have to wait until the next work shift," Tom said, walking around the front of the truck as he spoke. "What time is it now?"

"Almost three," Martha replied, glancing at the clock as Tom got into the driver's seat.

"Give it an hour or so, then," Tom said as he started the engine. "I'll get us somewhere near the entrance; should be easy enough to get in when the time's right if we're close already."


	30. The Doctor's 'Diversion'

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: Just to clarify, this chapter begins on the morning of the day Martha arrived in Britain, looking at the Doctor, Jack and the Jones as they signal each other to begin their 'break-out' attempt before looking at the attempt itself

AN 2: Given the timing of this chapter, there's one point I feel I should clarify right now; unlike he did to Lucy in the original course of events, the Master has _not _been hitting Rose or anything like that, as both of them knew when they entered this 'marriage' what they were getting into and thus Rose- unlike Lucy- hasn't been 'asking' for more than the Master might be willing to give

Broken Faith

Crawling gradually out of his tent as the sound of the Master's little 'soundtrack' blared over the _Valiant_'s speakers- he still wondered why this version of his old friend was so fond of the Scissor Sisters; it wasn't that they were a _terrible _band, but after so long disdaining Earth culture _now _the Master started showing an interest in _pop music _of all things?-, accompanied by the ringing of the bell the other Time Lord always used to 'summon' him these days, the Doctor only needed a brief glance at his surroundings to confirm his worst thoughts; the Master was in a good mood.

In the past, that might been somewhat encouraging- the version of his friend he'd regularly encountered during his third incarnation had at least been somewhat approachable for casual conversation when he wasn't currently engaged in some plan or another, although that aspect of his personality had definitely become less evident after his eighth incarnation's out-of-sequence encounter during the aftermath of the Dalek conquest of Earth left him a charred husk-, but with this new incarnation, saying that he was in a 'good mood' only meant that he was probably only going to taunt the Doctor rather than try and kill someone else today.

Refusing to respond to the Master's long kiss with Rose- she was now dressed in a long dark blue dress that, combined with the harsh application of make-up she was wearing, reminded the Doctor slightly of her attitude when Cassandra was possessing her- or his casual spin in a chair before sipping the tea Francine had brought him- only to throw it aside in disgust; he never knew if the Master just did that for the sake of it or genuinely disliked the tea-, the Doctor simply allowed himself to be thrown into the wheelchair the Master had 'graciously' provided for him, barely paying attention to his brief 'roll' around the conference room until his tired eyes registered the sight of the Toclafane outside the window, the Master's voice in his ear.

"It's ready to rise, Doctor," his former friend said, the casual smirk on his face clearly visible even out of the corner of the Doctor's eye as he stared silently ahead of himself.

"It's good, isn't it?" the Master continued, looking out the window as a couple of Toclafane flew past before turning back to look at the Doctor, a slightly querying tone in his voice. "Isn't it good? Anything?"

He waved one hand in front of the Doctor's face, but the Doctor still declined to respond. "No? Anything?"

As a small group of Toclafane followed the two who had previously passed across the window, the Master seemed to realise something, his expression becoming almost sympathetic.

"Oh, but they broke your hearts, didn't they, those… _Toclafane_?" he said, looking back at the Doctor with an expression that could have been called sympathetic if the Doctor didn't know that his old friend had abandoned sympathy long ago. "Ever since you worked out what they really are…"

The Doctor didn't bother replying to that statement- the Master wouldn't understand or listen to his answer anyway, so it wasn't worth it-, but the Master resumed speaking before he could even try to think of something else to say. "They say Martha Jones…has come back home. Now why would she do that?"

"Leave her alone…" the Doctor said, turning to look at the Master directly for the first time since this 'conversation' began; if he could bring the Master's focus back on him, his enemy would spend less time thinking about what _Martha _might be up to at this point…

"But you said something to her, didn't you?" the Master asked, staring back at the Doctor. "On the day I took control… what did you tell her?"

"I have one thing to say to you," the Doctor replied, taking a moment's satisfaction as the Master raised an eyebrow slightly at that statement. "You know what it is…"

"Oh, no you don't!" the Master cut in, standing back up and pulling the Doctor's wheelchair out before pushing it into a nearby wall, the Doctor simply sitting silently in the chair as it moved.

"Come on, people!" the Master yelled, clapping his hands together as he addressed the rest of the room- the Doctor vaguely heard a comment over the PA system about the _Valiant _entering Zone One airspace, but didn't pay attention; it merely confirmed what he already knew- in his usual authoritative manner.** "**What are we doing? Launch Day in 24 hours!"

Looking over at where Francine was currently sweeping up the remnants of the teacup the Master had broken earlier, the Doctor nodded resolutely at her as he tapped three fingers on his right hand against his left arm.

He'd spoken with the Joneses about the methods they might have to resort to when they reached this point, but what had been planned and what they might be willing to do were two very different things; he _was _asking a great deal of them, particularly if he'd wrongly guessed how his old friend might react…

But there was no other way.

If Martha was going to _know _that he was still alive- and therefore that the original plan he'd told her about on that first day of the Master's reign was still possible-, he had to find some way of making sure the Master announced his 'presence' to the world…

And the only circumstances under which the Master would make his continued survival public was if he did something that merited public 'punishment'…

The Doctor already knew he wasn't going to enjoy whatever the Master had prepared for him; he could only hope that whatever the Master did to him he'd continue to leave the Joneses alone…

* * *

As three o'clock approached, the Master casually relaxing in his chair as Francine and Tish cleaned the cups on a nearby table and the Master enjoyed his usual 'massage'- he had so many staff available to do that kind of thing it was almost ridiculous; for a man who saw humans as inferior, the Master kept a _lot _of servants 'available'-, Rose simply waiting off to the side as she slightly smiled over in his direction, the Doctor simply sat in front of his tent and waited for the moment to act.

It wasn't much of a plan, he freely admitted to himself- the Master had almost certainly made the laser screwdriver as isomorphic as his TARDIS; that feature was an almost integral part of Time Lord technology, although he'd long ago disabled most of those systems in the TARDIS to encourage his companions to feel more at home-, but that wasn't the point in the end; all he wanted was something to get the Master angry at _him_.

His gaze fixed on the Master's coat, the Doctor waited for the moment to act; if Jack had received the message that the Joneses had been 'instructed' to pass on to him, their cue should be activated any minute now…

"_Condition Red_!" the PA suddenly announced, alarms blaring throughout the conference room practically as soon as the clock on the wall announced that it was three o'clock. "_Condition Red! Condition Red_!"

"What the _hell_?" the Master said, standing up from his chair as he hurried up the stairs towards the bridge. Before Rose or the Master's staff could take action, Francine had grabbed the Master's jacket from where he'd tossed it onto the table and thrown it to Tish, Tish subsequently passing it to the Doctor as he shakily got to his feet.

He might be too weak to stand unaided for long in this condition, but as he pulled out the laser screwdriver, the Doctor knew that he'd stood up for long enough; leaning against the stair railing, he aimed the weapon at the Master, a grim expression on his face as his enemy turned to look at him.

"Oh," the Master said, his voice almost nonchalant (Unlike his condition the last time the Doctor had had him at 'gunpoint'; he certainly hadn't been as calm when the Doctor had threatened him and the Rani with the Master's own Tissue Compression Eliminator back in his sixth incarnation) as he raised his hands. "I see…"

"I told you," the Doctor said, his voice low to conserve its strength, "I have one thing to say…"

For a moment, there was silence in the conference room, the Doctor aiming the weapon

Master broke into a broad smile as he started to laugh; the Doctor barely remembered to put an expression of at-least-slight surprise on his face to give the impression that he hadn't expected this particular turn of events, shifting his expression to a glare of frustration as the Master walked down the stairs towards him.

"Isomorphic controls," the Master said, his tone suggesting that he was talking to an idiot as he leaned over to the take the screwdriver from the Doctor, subsequently striking his old enemy with a powerful slap that sent him sprawling backwards to land on the ground in a heap.

"Which means," the Master continued, the disdain still clear in his voice even without the Doctor looking at him, "they only work for _me_."

The Doctor heard the sound of something mechanical opening, and then the Master spike again.

"Like _this_," he said, the Doctor turning around just in time to see a blast from the screwdriver strike the wall beside where Francine was standing, the elder Jones ducking to the side as the blast narrowly missed her.

"Say sorry!" the Master yelled over at Martha's mother.

"_Sorry_…" Francine practically spat as she glared at the Master, her body shaking with barely contained rage as Tish ran over to help her mother.

"Didn't you learn anything from the blessed Saint Martha?" the Master asked as he walked down the stairs, Rose passing him his jacket and helping him to don it once again. "Siding with the Doctor is a very dangerous thing to do. Take them away."

As the Master's soldiers 'escorted' Francine and Tish out of the conference room- led by the still-hypnotised Mike Yates; the Doctor made a mental note to ensure his old friend had access to a _really _good psychiatrist when the Master's hold over him was broken-, the Master and Rose casually lifted the Doctor up into a nearby chair at the end of the conference table.

"You know," the Master said, sitting on the edge of the table as he smirked at the Doctor, spinning the chair around once with his leg, "I remember the days when the Doctor… oh, that famous Doctor… was waging a _time war_."

Stopping the chair's spin, the Master smirked slightly as he looked at the Doctor, evidently enjoying this latest chance to humiliate his rival.

"Battling Sea Devils and Axons; he sealed the rift at the Medusa Cascade single-handed," the Master continued, as though the last had only just occurred to him (Something that the Doctor doubted was the case; Koschei _had _been rather annoyed at the Doctor for accomplishing something like that while they were still in the Academy at the time).

"Ooh… and look at him now," the Master continued, sounding almost disappointed as he continued to stare at the Doctor (The Doctor wasn't sure what was worse; the Master's sarcasm or the fact that Rose was looking at him off to the side in a pitying manner). "Stealing screwdrivers… How did he ever come to this?"

Then the other Time Lord's face brightened. "Oh yeah; me!"

"I just… need you… to listen-" the Doctor began.

"No," the Master interjected, shaking his head briefly before he glared at the Doctor with renewed intensity. "It's _my_ turn."

Leaning over the Doctor's chair, the Master continued his rant. "_Revenge_! Best. Served. Hot. And this time… It's a message for Miss Jones."

Even with the grim nature of that statement ringing in his ears, the Doctor could only just stop himself from smiling at his old enemy's last comment.

Whatever the Master had planned for him was almost certainly going to be unpleasant…

But, if it allowed Martha to receive the message that he _wanted _her to get, he could cope with it.

As long as Martha knew that the plan could still work, nothing else mattered…


	31. Professor Docherty

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

Broken Faith

As Tom cut through the chain-link fence separating them from the central compound- they'd hidden the car near the main gates but had decided to sneak in the side while the previous work-shift was departing to limit the possibility of detection-, Martha couldn't stop herself from glancing around to try and spot any approaching Toclafane. Even with the perception filter provided by the TARDIS key and Toshiko's subsequent 'upgrade', she'd never been comfortable with taking any action that would take longer than a few seconds to finish in case the Toclafane worked out where she was by noticing something strange about her surroundings…

"We're in," Tom said, as he snipped through the last link on the fence before looking back at her.

Martha didn't need telling twice; almost as soon as Tom had finished speaking, she was already on her hands and knees crawling through the hole, Tom following her almost immediately after she started running towards their destination.

For those few moments as Martha ran across the open area between the fence and the main factory before her, she was barely aware of anything but the stillness of the sky around her, Tom's presence barely registering as anything more than another element of the environment; if there was even the _slightest _trace of a Toclafane approaching her, she wanted to be ready for it…

Then, as she finally reached the door she was aiming for- a rear entrance covered by a plastic sheet; from what she could see it looked like this part of the facility had been under construction before the Toclafane assault and nobody had bothered to finish it-, Martha ducked through the entrance just in time to hear a frustrated voice yell out, followed by the sound of someone hitting something.

"Professor Docherty?" Tom said as they walked along the small corridor, Martha quickly seeing an older woman- possibly in her late fifties; she had a weathered-looking face that could have meant she was either well-travelled early fifties or a well-preserved early sixties- dressed in a light jacket and trousers and a woollen jumper, standing around an assortment of battered-looking electronic equipment and currently staring at what appeared to be a television that had lost its exterior.

"Busy," the woman replied briefly, reaching behind the screen before her to fiddle with a few knobs.

"They… uh… they sent word ahead," Tom continued, evidently taken aback by this response. "I'm Tom Milligan; this is Martha Jones."

"She can be the Queen of Sheba for all I care; I'm still busy," Docherty replied (Not that Martha could blame her; with her son held by the Master, she had every reason not to be too happy at Martha's presence).

"Televisions don't _work _any more," she said, indicating the screen with an abrupt nod; it might be presumptuous to start criticising the woman she'd come all this way to see, but with the Doctor still being held captive right now Martha wanted to get down to business as soon as possible.

"Oh God, I miss _Countdown_," Docherty replied (Whether she hadn't heard Martha or was just ignoring her Martha didn't know), staring at the screen wistfully. "Hasn't been the same since Des took over. Both Deses. What's the plural of Des? Desii? Deseen?"

For a moment, Martha could only look uncertainly at Tom, the expression on his face showing the same concern that now filled her; she might have grown used to this kind of random line of thought from the Doctor, but hearing it in this situation from the woman she _had _to make contact with for the plan to succeed wasn't entirely encouraging…

"But we've been told there's going to be a transmission," Docherty said, her attention back in the present as she hit the monitor once again. "From the man himself."

For a moment, the screen continued to show only static, and then a grainy black and white shot appeared on the screen, the Master's face clearly visible despite the poor quality of the transmission.

"_My people_," the Time Lord said, his tone that same arrogant rant that Martha had heard almost every night in her nightmares since this whole mess had begun- the obvious exception being her 'dream/message' from the Doctor and the occasional dream she'd had about the Doctor's past after meeting various past companions- as he addressed the screen. "_Salutations on this, the eve of war_."

Martha briefly noticed Rose pass by the screen before her- she couldn't stop herself clenching her fists at the sight; Rose _still _looked fine and comfortable while millions around the world could barely sleep in comfort-, prompting a brief smile from the Master before he continued.

"_Lovely woman_," he said briefly, before his expression became grimmer. "_But I know there's all sorts of… whispers down there. Stories of a… _child _walking the Earth, giving you hope_."

Martha wasn't sure which emotion should take precedence- anger at the Master's dismissal of her as a child or fear at the implication that he might know what she was up to-, but then the camera shifted as the Master walked back slightly to stand alongside the still-elderly form of the Doctor, now slumped in a wheelchair as he stared grimly ahead of himself at nothing, and her emotions automatically shifted to rage; how could _anyone_- the Master had once been the Doctor's friend, and she wasn't going to get _started _on what Rose meant to the Doctor- do that to someone?

"_But I ask you_," the Master asked, one hand on the Doctor's shoulder as he looked at the camera, "_how much hope has this man got_?"

As the camera focused on the Doctor's face, Martha barely even registered the Master's brief comment about Gandalf- most likely a dig at the Doctor's appearance-; all that mattered to her, in that moment, was the solid resolution in the Doctor's eyes that made it clear he still refused to give in to his enemy…

"_Except_," the Master continued, walking back to stand in front of the camera while keeping to the side to ensure that the Doctor remained in view, "_he's not _that _old, but he's an alien with a much greater lifespan than you stunted, little apes_."

He smiled briefly at the camera, the casual grin giving Martha the brief, unnerving impression that, if he'd been in the room with them, he'd have gone for somebody's neck. "_What if it showed_?"

As the Master turned away from the camera, Martha could only see a brief glimpse of something in the Master's hands as he continued to speak. "_What if I suspend your capacity to regenerate_?"

Martha's blood ran cold.

She might not know for certain what the Master was about to do to the Doctor, but after what she'd heard about regeneration, she _strongly _doubted it could be healthy for him…

"_All _nine hundred _years of your life, Doctor_," the Master continued- Martha briefly wondered about the emphasis on the age, but pushed it aside; it wasn't relevant right now-, raising the device that Martha already knew was the laser screwdriver to point it at the Doctor. "_What if we could see them_?"

As the screwdriver was activated, Martha could barely hear the Master's words, her gaze fixed on the Doctor as he writhed and screamed in agony, his voice expressing more torment than she'd heard even when he was using the chameleon arch as his body slid from the wheelchair onto the ground, desperately gasping for air as he seemed to become smaller and smaller…

Finally, the screaming stopped as the Master pocketed the laser screwdriver, silence dominating the transmission as Rose and the Master looked silently at the wheelchair where the Doctor had been mere moments ago.

"_Doctor_?" the Master asked, only to receive no response as the camera panned down towards the area where the Master was looking, revealing the Doctor's clothes in a small pile on the floor… with no sign of the man who'd been wearing them.

_No_… Martha thought briefly, horrified at the implications of what she was seeing; had the Doctor become so physically old that he'd already-?

Then, just as Martha thought she felt a tear about to trickle down her cheek, a smallish domed head- the hand alongside it as it peered out almost the size of the creature's eyes- poked its way out of the shirt, looking silently around the room as it blinked rapidly, apparently trying to clear its vision.

For a moment, the Master simply looked at the creature before him with what could almost be surprise- Martha was willing to bet that no Time Lord had ever actually remained in one body for the length of time that the Doctor had been artificially aged by; she made a mental note to ask him just how long he'd have to live in one body before it could be considered 'old' once this was over-, but he swiftly regained his composure as he turned back to glare into the camera, the Doctor's now near-helpless form concealed from view behind him.

"_Received and understood, Miss Jones_?" the Master said, his voice and face clearly displaying nothing but contempt for her before he terminated the transmission, leaving them staring at a screen of static once again.

After a moment, Tom broke the silence.

"I'm sorry," he said, his voice a low whisper that Martha almost didn't hear it.

Despite the grim nature of what she'd seen, Martha couldn't help but smile.

"The Doctor's still alive," she said simply.

He might not be in the best shape he'd ever been in, but he was still alive; with her part of the plan having been accomplished, it was a relief to know that the Master hadn't done anything to jeopardise the Doctor's role.

"Uh… that's it?" Tom said, looking uncertainly at her. "I mean, no offence, but if you need that guy for something he doesn't exactly look in great shape…"

"He's alive; that's all I needed to know," Martha replied, nodding briefly at him before turning to look at Docherty. "Getting back to business, I heard you've got access to some of the only remaining computer networks left running; what have you got?"

"Oh, right," Docherty said, shaking her head slightly as though she'd lost concentration- most likely concerned about whether her son had been through something similar to what the Master had just done to the Doctor- before she walked over to another corner of the room that the presence of a bed suggested was her sleeping area. "Based on what information we've been able to piece together-"

"'We' being…?" Martha asked.

"A few colleagues of mine who managed to keep a few computers up and running after the attack," Docherty explained, before handing Tom and Martha a couple of print-outs of what looked like Archangel network information posters released before the Toclafane (Evidently she wanted to keep giving Martha information to prevent Martha from looking too closely at what she _wasn't _being told). "Obviously, the Archangel Network would seem to be the Master's greatest weakness; fifteen satellites all around Earth, still transmitting. That's why there's so little resistance; it's broadcasting a telepathic signal that keeps people scared."

"We could just take them out," Tom suggested (Martha wondered if she should feel annoyed at the implication that such a course of action hadn't occurred to someone before, but pushed it aside; it was just stress-induced anger).

"We could," Docherty replied, her voice becoming more evidently sarcastic as she glanced back at Tom. "Fifteen ground-to-air missiles; you got any on you?"

Nobody even bothered to answer that; it was well known that all major military facilities had been destroyed on the first day, and anything left had been commandeered for the Master's war machine.

"Besides," Docherty continued, turning back to the screen before her, evidently lost in her own grim thoughts, "any military action, the Toclafane descend."

"They're not called Toclafane," Martha added, deciding that she might as well get down to the 'official' reason for her presence. "That's a name the Master made up."

"Then what are they, then?" Docherty asked, turning back around to look inquiringly at her.

"That's why I came to find you; know your enemy," Martha replied (She rather liked that answer, really; it said exactly why she'd come here without revealing the _real _reason), as she stood up to pull a purple-covered CD out of her bag.

"I've got this," she explained, looking around at the other two people in the room. "No one's been able to look at a sphere close up. They can't even be damaged… except _once_. The lightening strike in South Africa brought one of them down, just by chance. I've got the readings on this."

It hadn't been as simple as it sounded, of course- Africa had been one of the more significant 'detours' she'd taken after that meeting with what remained of Jack's team, and it had been an absolute _nightmare _getting to India afterwards-, but Martha had managed to get lucky enough to gain access to the CD that Docherty was now beginning to run through her computer, and she wasn't going to turn down this kind of opportunity to learn more about the one thing the Doctor _hadn't _managed to tell her about.

"So… this is why you travelled the world?" Tom asked, breaking into her train of thought as Docherty muttered in frustration at the computer before her. "To find a disc?"

"No," Martha replied briefly. "Just got lucky."

"I heard stories that you walked the Earth to find a way to build a weapon," Docherty said, her tone sounding half-reflective as she stared at the screen in front of her.

For a moment, Martha couldn't help but recall those last brief moments with the Doctor- the _real _Doctor, not the 'memories' of his past selves or that dream-version of him who'd appeared when they'd all gone-, as he told her the _real _reason she would need to walk the Earth for so long…

"There!" Docherty's voice said, cutting through Martha's memory and drawing her back to the present, Martha leaning over Docherty's shoulder to read the information on the screen in front of them. "A current of 58.5 kilo amperes transferred charge of 510 megajoules precisely."

"Can you recreate that?" Tom asked.

"I think so," Docherty replied, a smile spreading across her face as she nodded in confirmation. "Easily, yes."

"All right then, Doctor Milligan," Martha said, turning to look at the man in question. "We're gonna get us a sphere."

She just hoped this desperate plan managed to get them _something _useful; the last thing she wanted was to take this kind of risk and come away without having accomplished anything for herself beyond telling the Master where to find her…

* * *

A few hours later, as she sat in the makeshift living quarters after the 'interrogation'- Tom and Docherty were disposing of the deceased Toclafane somewhere out of the way; hopefully anyone who found it would assume that it had simply been damaged in a lightning-strike like the one in Africa-, Martha still couldn't quite believe what she'd learned.

The Toclafane… were the _Utopians_?

The last humans in existence, having come all the way back from the end of the universe just to destroy their pasts, driven apparently hopelessly insane by the failure of the Utopia project…

Martha wasn't sure if she could cope with this latest revelation; the sheer _scale _of what those hopeful, desperate people had done to themselves- to say nothing of what they'd done since coming through the rift created by the TARDIS- just to survive almost overwhelmed the mind…

It was so… 'horrific', was the only term she could think of, and even that didn't seem to express the full scale of what she'd just discovered.

Martha almost hated to admit it, but maybe the Master was right; if the human race was practically destined to turn into… _that_… they were probably better off-

"None _of me want to accept that things are that way_…"

Martha's train of thought ended almost automatically as she recalled the words the Byron-esque Doctor- the one who had sacrificed his own planet to save every single other planet across time and space- had said to her during her dream-conversation with the past Doctors those long months ago.

If she remembered that conversation right- and she was fairly sure she did; it wasn't the kind of thing that slipped your mind easily, even if the last part was only a dream-, that Doctor had once been confronted by someone who'd asked him why he tried to do things the way he did when faced with so much evidence that he would accomplish nothing in the end…

And what had the Doctor's reply been when called upon to justify his motivation?

"_Injustice is the rule, but I want justice. Suffering is the rule, but I want to end it. Despair accords with reality, but I insist on hope. I don't accept it because it is_ _unacceptable…"_

Right now, Martha needed to keep those words in mind if she was going to cope with this latest discovery; given that the Master had seen fit to torture the Doctor only a few hours ago, she doubted that he had given up, so she wouldn't either.

Besides…

When she thought about it, surviving to the end of the universe wasn't exactly something to be dismissed that easily; even with the Utopians' final fate in mind, the fact that they'd survived all the way to the end of time itself when nothing else- save for Chantho and the Master (Assuming he counted given that he'd been human at the time and had 'cheated' to get to that point in history in the first place)- was something that Martha couldn't help but find impressive.

Their final fate was… depressing- to say the least-, she wasn't denying that, but the fact that they'd made it that far before reaching the point where they'd mutilated and sacrificed everything else to survive was something that deserved at least some respect (Besides, if the Master hadn't had something to do with what they'd become in the end Martha would be very surprised; things seemed to have worked out too neatly for him for her to believe that everything had turned out the way it had without some kind of outside intervention).

With that thought in mind, Martha nodded resolutely.

Humanity's final fate would come when it came; right now, the species still had a hell of a lot of centuries left to it, and Martha was going to ensure that they didn't live those centuries under the rule of the Master.

The sound of footsteps cut off Martha's train of thought once again, prompting her to glance over at the 'door'- if it could be called that; it was really just the hole in the wall that people used to enter this area- to see Tom and Docherty walking back towards her.

"It's done," Tom said briefly before he moved over to pick up the tea Martha had prepared for them earlier- after so long depending on others it felt good to be able to do something for herself-, drinking his standing up against a nearby wall while Docherty sipped hers from the comfort of a chair. For a moment there was simply silence, nobody certain how to react to what they'd so recently learned, until Docherty spoke at last.

"I think it's time we had the truth, Miss Jones," the professor's voice said from where she sat behind Martha, her tone a neutral one that betrayed no emotion at the recent discoveries. "The legend says you've travelled the world to find a way of killing the Master. Tell us, is it true?"

"Just before I escaped," Martha said, taking a brief moment to recall the fake cover story she'd created with Professor Chesterton those long months ago before continuing, reaching over to open her bag and pull out the three phials of coloured water she'd picked up for just this moment, "the Doctor told me what I could do. The Doctor and the Master, they've been coming to Earth for years… and they've been watched."

As she removed the pack containing the gun from her bag, she looked around at her small audience regretting that Tom at least couldn't be told what he was risking his life for even as she knew it wasn't worth the risk, before continuing. "There's UNIT and Torchwood, all studying Time Lords in secret… and they made this; the ultimate defence."

Opening the bag, Martha revealed the gun she and Chesterton had pieced together before her departure. In the end it was little more than a nail-gun with a few tubes attached to it, but it didn't necessarily have to look sleek; it just had to look like it could do the job she was claiming it could do.

"All you need to do is get close," Tom said holding up his small pistol as he spoke. "I can shoot the Master dead with this-"

"Actually, you can put that down _now_, thank you very much," Docherty cut in, looking at Tom with a certain disdain as she reached out to lower his hand.

"Point is," Martha continued, recalling what she'd heard from the Doctor's old companions about the Doctors who'd regenerated in their company, "it's not so easy to kill a Time Lord. They can regenerate; literally bring themselves back to life."

(There was also all that stuff Anji and Fitz had mentioned about the Doctor being able to 'turn himself off' and go into some kind of 'healing coma' if he was injured to a certain extent without actually _dying_, but she didn't feel now was the time to go into that.)

"Ah, the Master's immortal," Docherty said, sarcasm clear even without Martha looking at her. "_Wonderful_."

"Except for _this_," Martha said as she picked up the gun, trying to sound sincere as she spoke (Acting had never been one of her strong points back at school, but she liked to think she'd picked up a few tricks over the past year).

"Four chemicals," she continued, picking up the phial containing the blue-coloured liquid as she continued to speak, "slotted into the gun, inject him; kills a Time Lord… permanently."

"Four chemicals?" Tom asked, looking uncertainly at her. "You've only got three."

"Still need the last one 'cause the components of this gun were kept safe, scattered across the world," Martha replied, quickly remembering the three cities she and Professor Chesterton had selected; all of them had former UNIT bases that hadn't been used for years, but were otherwise nothing special. "And I found them; San Diego, Beijing, Budapest and London."

"Then… where is it?" Tom asked in confusion.

"There's an old UNIT base, north London," Martha replied. "I've found the access codes; Tom, you've got to get me there."

Even as she packed the fake gun back into her bag, however, Martha couldn't help but keep her fingers crossed behind her back; the gun might be a complete lie, but would the Doctor's _real _plan hold up any better when the time came to put it into action…?


	32. Rose Saxon VS Martha Jones

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: For practicality's sake, this chapter begins after Martha's told her story to her London audience, with the trip to the slave's quarters having progressed uneventfully; given how close we are to the big moment, I felt that it was best not to delay

AN 2: Thanks are due to DutchLady, who suggested the confrontation in this chapter; if it weren't for her I'd have stuck with the Master and this scene would have been a _lot _shorter

Broken Faith

As Martha sat on the stairs of the apartment building that served as the 'slaves' quarters' for the London workers, having just finished passing on the message and instruction she'd spent the past year 'relaying' to the rest of the world- fortunately most of the workers in Britain tended to be congregated around London now, so passing it on to the rest of the British population wouldn't be too difficult-, she wondered how long she'd have to wait until the Master acted on Docherty's information; if she had to actually try and _find _that chemical she'd told Tom she was looking for, she'd have a bit of trouble finding something that could convincingly look like an old UNIT base…

Then a woman ran in through the door, panic evident on her face, and Martha didn't even need to hear her speak to know that her fears were unfounded; only the Master could inspire _that _level of panic…

"It's her!" the woman said, staring urgently at Martha. "Oh my God, it's _her_! It's Rose Saxon! She's here!"

Martha couldn't hold back the shock she felt at that statement; she'd been expecting the possibility that the Master would show up- from what the Doctor had told her that night in the warehouse she could at least form _some _kind of theory about how he'd react if he was the one who came to 'collect' her, mainly based around him keeping her alive to kill her at the 'right' time-, but Rose…

She didn't even know much about what Rose had been like _before _she went and married the Doctor's worst enemy; how was she meant to know how Rose would deal with her?

She didn't even have time to register someone talking about how 'she' never came to Earth before she found herself covered by a blanket of some sort as people around her began to run back to their various rooms, the sound of her heartbeat under the blanket doing little to prevent her from hearing the sounds outside as the Toclafane moved into position and guns were cocked in preparation for whatever Rose was going to do…

"Martha?" Rose called out, her voice betraying a certain casual smugness that reminded Martha far too keenly of the Master's voice. "Are you there? Come on, I know you're here _somewhere_; we got information from a _very _reliable source…"

Martha thought she saw Tom tense up out of the corner of her eye, but didn't bother to look too closely at it; this was far from the time for her to explain _why _Professor Docherty had betrayed them, even if it wouldn't have risked giving away the Doctor's intentions before he was ready to act.

"You know," Rose's voice continued from outside, sounding almost bored as she spoke, "this isn't helping anybody; you're not even that much of a _threat_."

Martha couldn't help but feel a brief stab of jealousy and pain at the possible implications of that last statement; even though she'd told herself more than once that what Rose was now wouldn't change how the Doctor had felt about her in the past, having it rubbed in her face like that- no matter how unintentionally it might have been- still hurt…

"Why else do you think my husband sent _me _rather than coming himself?" Rose continued, the smug tone in her voice reminding Martha briefly of Richard Lazarus, so convinced that he was right even as everything that was happening to him proved his theories wrong. "You're nothing more than a thorn in his side as far as he's concerned; he figured someone else could easily deal with it. Me…"

Rose paused for a moment- Martha couldn't believe this woman; she was trying _far _too hard to be melodramatic, in her opinion- before continuing. "Well, let's just say I've got a little something you're going to help me _prove _to the Doctor."

Martha had no idea what Rose meant by that last statement, but right now she didn't care; she couldn't give any impression that she might _want _to be taken captive or Rose could realise that something was up…

"I mean," Rose continued, her tone now shifting from smug to condescending, "we all know you're going to _have _to come out eventually; if it's not sooner rather than later, I'm _perfectly _willing to give the order to shoot, I assure you…"

For a moment Rose stood in silence, the sound of guns being cocked the only thing to break the stillness of the street, and then she spoke again.

"I _will _give the order unless you surrender," Rose said; Martha almost thought she sounded _overly _cold at this point, as though she was trying harder that she should to be truly ruthless. "Ask yourself; what would the _Doctor _do?"

It was that statement, more than anything, that made Martha realise it was time to stop just listening; if Rose was going to start saying something like that, Martha would prefer not to give her the chance to say any more in case it got her so worked up she said something she'd regret (As it was, she was fighting the desire to just go up to Rose and punch her; how _dare _she try and tempt Martha out by asking what the _Doctor _would have done after betraying virtually everything the Time Lord believed in?).

Sitting up, Martha shook off the blanket and removed her TARDIS key from around her neck, ignoring the stares from the people around her as she walked down towards the door, placing a hand on Tom's gun as she stood by him to prompt him to lower the weapon in question. Turning around to shoot a brief smile at the people around her, Martha opened the door and stepped out, her eyes automatically falling on Rose as she saw the other woman standing at the other end of the street, a nonchalant smirk on her lips as her long black coat blew slightly around the legs that Martha could see even from here were only covered by a skirt.

"Ah, there you are," Rose said, smiling briefly at Martha. "Just like everyone who believes what he believes, really; so willing to sacrifice your victory when your own morality stops you going as far as you need to go."

Martha didn't bother to respond to that; she started out by simply taking a couple of steps forward, only to halt as Rose raised a hand in warning.

"Your bag," Rose said simply, indicating the bag where Martha kept the 'weapon' that she had told Docherty was the reason for her travels. "Throw it over here."

With all the guns that had once been aimed at the street doors now aimed at her, Martha only feigned the slightest reluctance as she removed her bag from her shoulder and threw it into the middle of the street.

Rose didn't even bother to examine it; as soon as the bag had landed on the ground, she pulled out what looked like a thinner version of the Master's laser screwdriver- Martha briefly wondered if she could ask the Doctor to make her a sonic screwdriver, but pushed that thought aside; this was _not _the time to think about that- and fired it at the bag, destroying the bag and its contents in one blast.

"Well," the blonde woman said, smiling slightly as she looked back at Martha, raising the laser screwdriver to point at her, "now that's out of the way, shall we deal with you…?"

"NO!" Tom's voice suddenly yelled; Martha didn't even have time to turn and see him running towards her, his gun aimed at Rose, before another blast from the laser screwdriver sent him falling to the ground, clearly dead.

"It all gets so easy after the first time…" Rose said, her tone and expression simply reflective as she stared at Tom's fallen body, apparently unconcerned about Martha's glare as she turned back to look at the other woman, before she shook her head as though coming to a decision. "But no… when you die, the Doctor has to see it."

Stepping back as though that was all that needed to be said, Rose nodded briefly at the soldiers around her. "Take her to the plane; we have to rejoin my husband."

* * *

An hour or so later, the sun already beginning to rise on the horizon, Martha was sitting opposite Rose in a private plane- most likely the only plane still permitted to fly, now that she thought about it- heading for the _Valiant_, Martha's hands and feet bound by rope as the guards sat in the rear compartment; the bonds wouldn't have been necessary if Martha had remained with the guards, but Rose had insisted that she sit here during the initial trip for some reason.

After a brief period of silence, during which Martha simply glared at Rose- she had no interest in taking in the view when the fate of the world was about to be decided-, Rose finally spoke.

"I don't know why you even really bothered to go to all this effort," she said, looking disdainfully over at Martha. "No matter what you do now, he'll never see you as anything more than the other person in the TARDIS…"

As Rose glanced back at Martha, a broad grin spreading across her face, Martha had to restrain the urge to at least try and punch Rose; with her hands bound and guards only a call away, that wouldn't accomplish anything right now (She just couldn't believe Rose's attitude; she had travelled the world to try and fight the Master, not to impress the Doctor!).

"After all, _I'm _the only real exception to that rule; he told me himself that I was different from his other companions," Rose continued, a satisfied smirk on her face as she looked scathingly at Martha; Martha couldn't help but be briefly reminded of the look on the faces of a couple of prospective landlords back when she and the Doctor had been trapped in 1969, who had told the Doctor that they'd accept him but didn't want Martha's 'kind' in their buildings. "I don't know who else he must have travelled with, but clearly-"

"I do," Martha cut in.

"Pardon?" Rose asked, looking back at Martha with a brief glare, as though annoyed at the interruption.

"I met them," Martha replied simply, clenching her fists briefly as she glared at Rose; no matter what Rose's status might be in the Master's world order, Martha wasn't going to let that intimidate her. "When I was out there… travelling the world… living through the nightmare that your 'husband' has unleashed upon us all… I _met _some of the people the Doctor's travelled with, and you know what they all had in common?"

"What?" Rose asked, looking at Martha with only a slight trace of uncertainty.

"_None _of them would agree with what you're doing," Martha said coldly.

"None of them ever loved the Doctor the way I do; they wouldn't feel the _need_ to make him see-" Rose began.

"I'm not _talking _about them doing something because they're _in love_ with him; I'm talking about them travelling with him for the _right _reasons," Martha said, her tone cold as she looked at Rose; she wasn't even going to bother to respond to all that crap about Rose doing this to 'help' the Doctor 'see the light' or whatever crap excuse she'd come up with to defend what she'd done, but she did have a few things she wanted to make clear to the woman before her. "If there's one thing I've learned from meeting all those old friends of his, it's that travelling with him might not be safe, and it won't be easy… but it _definitely _means that you have to do things the right way."

"And what _is_ the 'right way'… according to _you_?" Rose asked, looking at Martha with a slight smile that made it clear that she was only humouring Martha. "Going along and just letting things happen because they're 'meant' to happen?"

"For one thing, you _don't _kill on _this _scale because of something that hasn't _happened _yet," Martha said, her tone cold. "Killing when you're _certain _there's no other way to win is one thing… but what you've done?"

She shook her head. "The Doctor wouldn't accept that."

"He just needs time-" Rose began.

"After your husband's aged him like that I'm amazed he's got any time _left_," Martha countered, leaning forward slightly to make sure Rose understood what she was saying. "You're not interested in helping the _Doctor_; you're only interested in helping _yourself_."

For a moment, Rose just sat there, the words hanging in the air between her and Martha, and then she reached out and slapped Martha on one cheek, leaving the left side of Martha's face bruised even as she continued to glare at Rose.

"_Never _question my love for the Doctor," Rose said coldly. "I was willing to cross two _universes _to get back to him-"

"And you went and married his greatest enemy; I'm _really _feeling the love here," Martha countered, rolling her eyes in disdain despite the smarting pain in her cheek.

"He told me things he's never mentioned to anyone; did you even know he was a father-?" Rose began.

"One of his old friends told me that his first companion was his _granddaughter_," Martha countered, a slightly smug smile spreading over her at the sudden incredulity on Rose's face; the Doctor might have mentioned the fact that he'd been a father to Rose rather than her, but he evidently couldn't have gone into much detail about it if the fact that he'd had a granddaughter took her by surprise. "You _really_ think you love the Doctor? Did you ever even really _ask _him about where he came from?"

"I knew he was a Time Lord ever since our first trip together-" Rose began.

"I'm not talking about knowing his species, I'm talking about what you know about _him_," Martha asked, her eyes narrowing slightly as she looked at Rose, a thought occurring to her as she remembered what the leather-clad Doctor had said to her about what he'd told Rose about himself; maybe Rose would start seeing sense if Martha gave her an example of what she _didn't _know about the Doctor. "Tell me, did the Doctor ever take you to… Gallifrey?"

"Gallifrey?" Rose replied, smiling slightly over at Martha, only a faint uncertainty in her eyes even giving the slightest suggestion that she didn't know what planet Martha was talking about. "Oh yeah, that was one of the _first _places he took me to; wanted me to experience _everything _he enjoyed most in the universe…"

"What was it like?" Martha asked, trying not to appear too smug as she looked at Rose; if she was going to make her point, she couldn't give Rose any indication of what she was up to until she was ready.

"Oh… very nice, really," Rose replied, smiling slightly as she looked Martha. "Brilliantly clear blue skies, oceans at just the right temperature to be comfortable, a breathtaking landscape of tall mountains and majestic trees…"

She sighed slightly. "It was like… something out of a fantasy world, really; even the _name _just made me think of magic, and the sight of it felt so… _alive_…"

"Really?" Martha asked, fighting to prevent herself from retorting with a more sarcastic response; she wasn't going to get anywhere now by angering Rose before she'd finished making her latest point. "Was that what it looked like when he took you?"

"Of course," Rose replied, her old disdain back in force as she looked at Martha. "What was it like for you?"

"Well, it wasn't possible to go there when I travelled with him, but the Doctor described it to me in great detail," Martha replied, allowing a wistful expression of her own to spread across her features as she reflected on what the Doctor had told her during their time on New Earth after the death of the Face of Boe. "He told me that the skies were burnt orange, over a central citadel enclosed in a mighty glass dome- so large that they sometimes had rain _inside_ it-, with twin suns beating down on the vast mountains, covered with deep red grass and capped off with snow…"

She was unable to stop herself from smiling slightly at the memory of the Doctor's face as he told her about the one world that she could never see with him, tears brimming at the corner of his eyes even as the smile on his face made her glad that she had inspired him to start talking about this topic…

"He said that it was particularly beautiful when the second sun rose; the reflections of the silver-leafed trees made it seem like the forest itself was on fire," she continued, before looking back at Rose as another thought seemed to occur to her. "You know, as long as we're talking about this, can I ask you something different? Ever catch the name of the Doctor's home planet?"

"No…" Rose said, shaking her head slightly before she seemed to come to some inner resolution as she glared at Martha. "He never told me, and I never asked. I knew that it hurt him; I didn't see any point in bringing up bad memories-"

"And you never thought he might have _wanted _to talk about his home planet?" Martha countered, glaring back at Rose. "I asked him where he came from on my _second _trip with him, and you know what he said its name was?"

"What?" Rose retaliated.

"Gallifrey," Martha replied briefly.

Rose's eyes widened.

"I just told you about the Doctor's home _planet_, and you didn't even recognise a single thing I described, did you?" Martha said, unable to stop a slight smile as she looked at Rose. "Did you ever actually care about _him_, or was it just what he could show you…?"

Rose simply stared back at Martha, an expression on her face that reflected a strange combination of pain and rage, before she simply sat back down in her chair, cold hatred in her gaze as she looked at Martha.

"You might have found a couple of things I didn't know, but that doesn't change the facts," she said simply. "The Doctor _does _love me…"

Martha didn't bother responding to that; the uncertainty behind the hatred in Rose's eyes was more than she'd been expecting.

She hadn't realised it when she'd said it, but looking at Rose now, she had to wonder if her last statement had been more accurate than she'd intended.

Had Rose ever cared about the Doctor as the _Doctor_… or had she only really fallen for him because of where he was able to take her in the TARDIS?

Martha wasn't going to deny that the TARDIS had played a part in why she _stayed _with the Doctor- the things she'd seen with him so far were incredible, and she'd known there was so much more to see even before she'd learned about some of the sights he'd witnessed with his past companions-, but she'd still initially spent time with the Doctor because of _who_ he was, not _what _he was; a man of such incredible enthusiasm and passion for everything and everyone around him…

As the _Valiant _became vaguely visible out of the window nearest Martha, she forced such thoughts to the back of her mind as she tensed herself for what was to come.

After spending the past year travelling across Earth, spreading the word about the one man alive whom everyone on this planet owed their lives countless times over, Martha Jones was about to learn whether the world had believed her message…


	33. Restoration of the Doctor

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: And now, the moment you've all been waiting for; the moment when the human race repays the Doctor for all that he has done for them, and shows the Master and Rose how wrong they really are…

Broken Faith

As Martha walked into the conference room of the _Valiant_, she only briefly registered the presence of Jack Harkness- no surprise at that end; from what the Doctor had said, it was doubtful that _anything _the Master could have done to him could stop Jack for good- and her family on either side of her as she came to a halt in front of the stairs leading up to the main control deck.

As she saw the small, withered features of the Doctor in the cage positioned on the nearby table, all she could do was smile softly at him as he stood up slightly, the faint trace of a smile on his withered mouth all she needed to know that she'd done what she'd set out to do.

All that they could do had been done; it was all dependent on how the Master reacted to having her prisoner…

Looking up at the deck before her, Martha wasn't surprised to see Rose and the Master standing there, looking down at her with a casual smirk on both their faces, the Master still dressed in his usual black suit while Rose was wearing an elegant long black dress.

"Your teleport device," the Master said briefly, walking down a couple of steps and holding out his hand. "In case you thought I'd forgotten."

Hoping that the Master wouldn't destroy this like Rose had destroyed the gun- the gun might have been fake but Martha would rather like to get the teleporter back to Jack in one piece-, Martha pulled the vortex manipulator out of her lower trouser pocket and tossed it up to the Master.

"And now…" the Master said, a sadistic smirk briefly flashing across his face as he spoke, "kneel."

As Martha knelt down, she allowed herself another brief glance over at the Doctor- the only person in this room she cared about whom she could easily see in her current position-, and was briefly surprised to see the look in his eyes as he studied her; it wasn't that he'd been unconcerned about her before- he just hadn't seen her as anything more than a friend-, but the sheer _depth _of feeling in his eyes now…

Even taking their larger size into account didn't change the fact that she'd only seen the Doctor look at her with _that _much emotion in her dream…

"Three minutes to align the black hole converters!" the Master suddenly yelled, the sound of a time being declared drawing Martha's attention back to the present as he turned back to look at her, a clock behind him already starting to count down.

"I never could resist a ticking clock," the Master said by way of clarification, smiling broadly as though at some private joke as he looked briefly over at Rose before looking slightly upwards as though addressing something on the ceiling. "_My children; are you READY_?"

Martha wasn't sure if he was _actually _talking to the Toclafane there or was just doing it to psyche her out, but either way she wasn't going to react;

"At zero," the Master continued, moving to stand at the top of the stairs, Rose taking up her own position just behind him as she leant against the railing with a casual smile, "to mark this day, the child, Martha Jones, will die; the first official blood of my new empire."

Redirecting his gaze to her, the Master raised one casual eyebrow. "Any last words?"

Martha didn't even bother to shake her head; she simply stared back at the only other surviving Time Lord, already resolved not to give him what he wanted.

"No?" the Master asked; as he moved down a couple of stairs and began to adjust the settings on his laser screwdriver, he almost seemed to be pouting. "Such a disappointment, this one. Days of old, Doctor, your companions could absorb the Time Vortex and create cities out of mathematical equations; this one's useless."

"Yep; I have to agree with you _there_, dear," Rose said, walking down the stairs to stand in front of Martha, a look of such casual disdain on her face that Martha was briefly reminded of her time in Farrignham. "You've put up a good fight, Miss Jones, but you've still lost in the end; don't you see that you _can't _stop the inevitable?"

"And _he's _inevitable?" Martha retorted, glaring back at Rose before her eyes briefly flicked to where the Master stood just behind the former London shop girl, looking at her with a grim smile. "If he's inevitable, I'll eat the TARDIS, starting with the _in_terior!"

"But you failed-" Rose began, looking at Martha with an expression that suggested she was the adult pitying a child who was insisting they could fly, only to be cut off when Martha laughed in response.

"Oh, come _on_," she asked, looking in amusement between Rose and the Master. "Do you _really _think the Doctor sent me out all that time for a _gun_?"

The Master blinked.

"What?" he said, looking quizzically at Martha, his hands on the railings on either side of him as he leaned forward inquiringly.

"For either of you... to think I would ask her to kill?" the Doctor wheezed, his small, frail form somehow looking as resolute as he had when he was at his peak as he stepped towards the bars of his cage, his now-sorrowful gaze fixed on his elegantly-clad former companion as she stared in confusion at his current one. "Did you _ever_... know me, Rose Tyler?"

"The gun was just the story to _get_ me here," Martha said, her smile becoming more solemn as she looked between the Master and her 'predecessor'. "Do you want to know what I was _really_ doing while I travelled the world?"

Shrugging dismissively, the Master

"Tell me," he said simply, his tone making it clear that he just didn't have anything better to do right now than listen to her.

"I told a story, that's all," Martha said, her gaze fixed directly on the Master. "No _weapons_, just _words_. I did just what the Doctor said; I went across the continents, all on my own… and everywhere I went, I found the people, and I told them my story."

(That last part wasn't entirely accurate, she knew, but she wasn't going to start telling him about the other old companions she'd met on her trip; the clock was still counting down and she wanted to finish her story at _just _the right moment to have the best impact).

"I told them about the Doctor," she continued, drawing her mind back to the matter at hand. "And I told them to pass it on, to spread the word so that everyone would know about the Doctor-"

"Faith and hope?" the Master interjected, looking sceptically at her. "Is that _all_?"

"No," Martha replied, standing up as she spoke; if the Master ordered her to kneel again, she might do it, but this was something she wanted to make sure he understood. "I _also _gave them an instruction. Just as the Doctor asked, I told them that if everyone thinks of one word, at one specific time-"

"_Nothing will happen_!" the Master spat, rolling his eyes incredulously at her. "Is _that _your weapon? _Prayer_?!"

"Right across the world," Martha continued, a grin spreading across her face as though he hadn't even spoken. "One word, just one thought, at one moment…"

She paused for a moment, her gaze shifting upwards as she spoke, looking at where the key to the Doctor's plan waited above her head. "But with _fifteen satellites_…"

"What?" Rose asked, looking at Martha in sudden shock.

"The Archangel Network…" Jack muttered from behind her, realisation evidently dawning on him just as it had the Master.

"A telepathic field!" Martha continued, shifting her gaze from the Master to Rose, wanting to make sure that the woman who had betrayed the Doctor understood the scale of what the other Time Lord had accomplished. "Binding the whole human race together, with all of them, _every single person on Earth_ thinking the same thing at the same time!"

* * *

"No…" Rose whispered, shaking her head as she looked at Martha in shock; this couldn't be happening, the Master's way was _right_, it _had _to prevail…

"It can't-" she began.

"And that word," Martha concluded, looking at Rose with a broad smirk that briefly reminded Rose of Cassandra- so confident that she was correct and nothing could convince her otherwise-, "is _Doctor_!"

No sooner had the word crossed Martha's lips, than a glowing field of blue energy suddenly appeared around the Doctor, the cage that contained him apparently collapsing into the energy.

"Stop it!" the Master said, raising a hand in a 'halt' gesture as he looked at the sight before him. "No, no, no, no, you don't!"

"Doctor…" Jack's voice suddenly whispered, prompting to glance up at the Jones family and her old companion just as Martha's mother closed her eyes as well, her family soon joining her in whispering the Doctor's name.

"Do-" the Master began, only for the screens around the _Valiant _walls- which had only moments ago displayed the empty streets as people waited for the Master's war to begin- now showed large crowds gathering, every one of them chanting the Doctor's name to the skies.

"Stop this right now; _stop it_!" the Master yelled, glaring out at the small group before him; even his soldiers were beginning to join in the chant.

For a moment, Rose was almost tempted to join in- what would it be like, to be part of something like this prayer-, but shook that thought off; that wouldn't help her now, only the _Master's _plan could protect the universe, only he could restore the Time Lord empire…

She couldn't bring herself even to voice in her thoughts the real reason she didn't want to join the chant; if she joined the chant, it would be admitting that she'd been wrong.

_But I _wasn't _wrong_! she berated herself, staring angrily at Martha as the dark-skinned woman looked over at the Doctor, his name passing her lips once again as she stared at his now-destroyed cage. _The Doctor's way of doing things destroys us; only the _Master_can save us_…

"I've had a whole year," the Doctor said, his dwarf-like appearance having now faded away as his physical build returned to that of a more conventional old man, "to tune myself in to the psychic network and integrate with its matrices…"

"_I order you to STOP_!" the Master yelled, apparently still trying to ignore the Doctor as he reactivated the broadcast system, only for the chanting of the crowds around the world to continue, the Doctor's name ringing through the air.

_Stop_… Rose privately begged, staring at the screens as she clenched the railings before her so tightly that her knuckles turned white. _Stop this… this isn't the way… the Master's our only chance to escape our fate_…

"The one thing you can't do…" the Doctor said, his expression grim as he stared at the Master, his withered appearance fading away to reveal the face she'd first seen in the TARDIS talking about his teeth as he set the coordinates for Barcelona so long ago. "Stop them _thinking_."

Rose didn't even need to look at her husband to know that he was shocked at this latest turn of events; as the Doctor rose up from the table where his cage had been located, his arms spread and no sign of anything holding him up.

"Tell me my faith in humanity was misplaced now," the Time Lord said, his voice sounding somehow deeper than normal as he addressed his old enemy, "when the faith of _one_ can inspire _this_."

"It's a lie…" Rose whispered, her voice so low even she could barely hear herself. "It's a lie… it doesn't work… it _has _to be a lie…"

* * *

"NO!" the Master yelled, firing the laser screwdriver at the Doctor as Jack stared in awe at his suddenly-restored friend, the now-reunited Jones family taking in the sight before them with equal awe as the blast simply struck the energy around the Doctor without doing any harm to the majestic figure of the Time Lord before them.

"I'm sorry," the Doctor said, looking at the Master with an expression of such obviously genuine pity that Jack almost couldn't believe it; how could the Doctor still pity a man who could do _that _to him…?

Then his eyes fell on Rose as she stared at the two Time Lords, tears on her face as she whispered something to herself, and Jack had his answer.

Even after what Rose had done to him- even after she'd thought she was _killing _him when she shot him in the head on that first day- a part of Jack would always remember her as the girl who'd believed in him when he'd been convinced he was nothing more than a scoundrel…

"Then I'll kill them!" the Master yelled, prompting Jack to glance back as the Master aimed the laser screwdriver at the Jones family, only for the weapon to be suddenly torn from his hand with a simple wave of the Doctor's arm.

"You… you can't do this," the Master said, the Time Lord's control seemingly slipping right in front of Jack as he stared pleading at the Doctor. "You can't do- _it's not FAIR_!"

"And you know what happens now," the Doctor continued, his expression solemn as he began to advance towards the Master, his arms spread out as he stared at his old friend.

"No!" the Master said, waving a hand desperately as he began to back down the stairs behind him. "No! _No_! _NO_!"

"You wouldn't listen," the Doctor said, as he began to lower himself down the stairs.

"NO!" the Master screamed, practically scratching at the wall behind him as though he was trying to dig his way out.

"Because you know what I'm going to say," the Doctor finished, his feet touching the ground as the energy surrounding him faded (Whether he'd exhausted it or humanity had stopped chanting his name, Jack didn't know and didn't think it mattered; the Doctor was back, and that was all they needed).

"_No_…!" the Master whimpered, curling into a foetal position as the Doctor walked over to him, crouched down, and wrapped his arms around the Master's shoulders.

"I forgive you," he said simply.

For a moment, Jack wondered why the Master had been so afraid of hearing that- based on all that talk about the Master 'knowing' what the Doctor had to say and the Master's reaction he'd been expecting some dark secret-, but then an explanation came to him.

For a man who called himself 'the Master', the implication that he could be wrong must be something he could never bring himself to accept; as far as people like the Master were concerned- and based on what Jack had heard Rose muttering to herself up on the main deck, she probably felt the same way now as the Master did-, every action they took must be the right action to take simply because it was the action they'd chosen.

To be forgiven by the Doctor… the closest thing he had left to a 'peer'…

It would be as good as providing the Master with incontrovertible proof that he _had _done wrong…

"Captain!" the Doctor said, drawing Jack's attention back to the Time Lord as he stood up from the Master, looking at his old companion with a renewed urgency. "The Paradox Machine!"

"You men; with me!" Jack yelled, looking back at the soldiers- one of whom was that 'Mike Yates' guy the Doctor had apparently known; evidently whatever hypnotic influence the Master had him under had broken- before hurrying out of the conference room, his goal fixed in his mind.

With the Toclafane only being kept here by the Paradox Machine- with everything that had happened this past year only having been made possible _because _of the Paradox Machine-, the only way to save Earth now was to eliminate that machine _now_…

* * *

As Jack and Mike ran out of the conference room, the other soldiers close behind them, the Doctor allowed himself a brief smile; they might be drastically different soldiers, but when it came to the military the Doctor would only have trusted the Brigadier and Benton more with the task he'd just given them…

Then he sensed movement out of the corner of his eye and glanced down just in time to see the Master pull out the vortex manipulator, and knew that the crisis wasn't over yet.

"NO!" he yelled, practically lunging towards the Master before he could activate the wrist-mounted time machine. There was a momentary feel of everything being crushed down and pulled apart at once- fortunately very brief; they were only making a short spatial hop rather than any kind of temporal one-…

* * *

And then the Doctor found himself standing on a rocky cliff near one of the many shipyards he'd seen through so many windows and on so many screens over the past year, the Master standing on the edge of the cliff with his arms spread out.

"Now it ends, Doctor!" he said, his voice betraying no signs of his earlier breakdown. "_Now _it ends!"

"You can't start your war now!" the Doctor yelled, wondering how long they had until Jack and Mike reached the TARDIS; he might have been able to last for a few crucial seconds when Whitaker and Grover attempted to put 'Operation Golden Age' into action, but exposure to the temporal energies generated by a human time machine from the seventies and exposure to the energies generated by a Paradox Machine like that were two very different things. "We've got control of the _Valiant_; you can't launch!"

"Oh, but I've got this!" the Master said, holding up a small device that the Doctor couldn't quite make out from his current distance. "Black hole converter, inside every ship! If I can't have this world, _Doctor_, than _neither can you_. We shall stand upon this Earth, together, as it _burns_!"

For a moment, the Doctor was taken back to the last time he'd faced someone who'd made that threat- the insane immortal Grayvorn, decimating the planet Artaris rather than allow the Doctor to destroy the source of his power-, but shook that off.

Unlike that occasion, this time he knew _precisely _how to stop his enemy going through with his threat…

"Weapon after weapon after weapon…" he said, shaking his head slightly as he walked towards his old friend, slow, gradual steps bringing him ever closer to the man who'd known him since that first day at the Academy, so many centuries and light-years away on a world that no longer existed…

"All you do is talk, and talk, and talk," he continued, his mind flashing back to so many occasions where the Master's need to make the Doctor know he'd lost had given him the chance to turn the tables, as he finally stopped in front of his oldest Time Lord friend. "But over all these years… and all these disasters… I've always had the greatest secret of all; I _know _you."

Indicating the ships spread out before them with a brief jerk of his head, he turned his focus back on the man before him. "Explode those ships, you kill yourself… and that's the one thing you could never do."

It had been one of the few constants in his life ever since he and the Master had first started this feud; even when he was dying already, the Master couldn't give up fighting to survive.

"Give that to me," he continued, holding out a hand before him. For a moment the Master paused, his natural desire to live warring with his old hatred for his oldest enemy, until he finally slapped the device into the Doctor's hand, the frustration on his face keenly displaying his feelings at the failure of that last gambit…

Then the Earth shuddered under their feet, sending both Time Lords falling to the ground, leaving the Doctor desperately scrambling for the Vortex Manipulator in the other Time Lord's hand, his fingers making contact with the activation controls just as he felt Time begin to reverse around the two of them…


	34. Death to the Master

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

Broken Faith

When it happened, Martha had no idea what it was; one minute she'd been waiting anxiously on the control deck of the _Valiant_, waiting for the Toclafane to destroy the ship as she and her family tried to think of _something _that they could do to stop the approaching spheres…

Then, right before Martha's eyes, the spheres disappeared, the ship shuddered, and Martha found herself thrown from her feet, only to be caught by the Doctor as he suddenly appeared on the deck, grinning like a lunatic as he stared at her before he redirected his gaze to the rest of the room.

"Everyone down!" he yelled, a broad smile still on his face as though he hadn't been reduced to a state that was probably as close to death as anyone could come while still being alive. "Time is reversing!"

Martha didn't even have a chance to ask him what that meant before she found herself lying on the ground opposite him; all she knew was that, when he looked over at her with a broad smile on his face and a gleam of joy in his eyes…

Martha might remain convinced that the important thing when travelling with the Doctor was to do the right thing _because _it was the right thing- rather than Rose's implication that she'd done everything she'd done during her travels because she wanted the Doctor to notice her-, but that didn't mean it wasn't good to see him healthy again, even if the world seemed to have gone wild around them as the _Valiant_ shuddered as though it had been caught in a storm…

Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the 'storm' faded away, leaving the _Valiant _stable once again and the people in the conference room dazed but otherwise unharmed.

Before Martha could ask what had just happened, the Doctor was back on his feet, flicking switches on the main control panel as he studied the information displayed on the screens.

"The paradox is broken!" he said, glancing back briefly at Martha and her family even as he continued to press buttons with an almost childish enthusiasm. "We've reverted back, one year and one day, two minutes past eight in the morning."

Before anyone could fully take in the implications of the Doctor's last statement, he hurried over to the communications panel and turned the knob to activate the speakers.

"_This is UNIT central_," an unidentified male voice said from the other end. "_What's happened up there? We just saw the President assassinated_-!"

"See?" the Doctor said as he turned the comms off, looking around at everyone with a slightly stunned expression as though even he couldn't believe how well everything had turned out. "Just _after _the President was killed, but just before the spheres arrived. Everything back to normal. Planet Earth restored. None of it happened. The rockets, the terror… it never was."

"What about the spheres?" Martha asked.

"Trapped at the end of the universe," the Doctor replied; only Martha could see the faint regret in his eyes at being unable to do anything for the last remnants of humanity, no matter how twisted they had become.

"But… I _remember _it," Francine said, clearly confused at the implications of what had just taken place.

"We're at the eye of the storm," the Doctor said by way of explanation. "The only ones who'll ever know…"

The sound of the door opening prompted Martha to turn around just in time to see the Master's head of security- the man the Doctor had recognised as 'Mike', now that she thought about it- come staggering into the conference room- Jack and the other soldiers close behind him-, walk over to the corner, fall to his knees, and subsequently throw up.

* * *

"Oh no…" the Doctor whispered, hurrying down towards his old UNIT colleague as Jack trained his gun on the Master just as his former friend began to get to his feet; the other Time Lord could wait, but right now Mike Yates's mental state was more important.

"Mike?" he said, crouching down beside his old friend as the ex-UNIT captain turned to look uncertainly at him. "Don't panic; I know I look different, but it's me… the same me who took you and Jo to Nooma _and_ Karfel for a date, remember…?"

"Do… Doctor?" Mike said, his voice half-uncertain as he looked at the Time Lord; evidently the disruption of the Master's hypnotic influence had left him more than slightly disorientated, even if he'd been able to push it aside for a time after Jack's order gave him something to focus on.

"Yeah, it's me," the Doctor replied, smiling briefly at Mike. "I know the new face hasn't got the dignity I had when we first met, and he definitely managed to be less rude than me when he was in his good moods, but I like to think I'm not that bad…"

He trailed off as Mike's gaze shifted to a point just behind him, his eyes narrowing at the sight of the Master.

"You…" Mike practically growled, the Doctor forgotten as he stood up and walked over to stand in front of the now-handcuffed Master.

"Yep; _me_," the Master replied, smiling briefly back at Mike. "So, how does it feel now that you know what it's like? Should make an interesting conversation point for your talks with Miss Grant- oh, wait, you shot her son during that last raid, didn't you?"

With a roar of rage, Mike's fist suddenly flew up and struck the Master in the face, sending the Time Lord's head reeling back as blood spurted from his nose.

"You bastard…" Mike muttered, drawing his gun and pointing it directly at the Master's face. "You _bastard_…"

"Mike, _don't_," the Doctor said, stepping forward to stand behind his old friend, his voice low as he spoke to the man who'd stood alongside him against virtually everything from Autons to giant spiders. "You don't have to do this-"

"Oh, I think so," Francine said, her voice low with a contempt that the Doctor hadn't heard her use even when she thought that _he _was the 'villain', glaring at the Master as he stood at the end of Mike's gun. "Because all those… things… they still happened because of _him_. I saw them…"

"And you're better than him," the Doctor said simply, looking between the two figures, one an old friend he hadn't seen for at least three lifetimes and another a woman he'd barely had a chance to know who had nevertheless done more for him than he could ever express. "_Both _of you."

"What I did-" Mike began.

"Was no more you than it was Jo who tried to blow up my lab on her first day at work," the Doctor interjected, looking at Mike with a brief smile. "He might have said that he just tweaked your perceptions so that you wouldn't recognise me, but trust me; he was in your head _far _more than that."

After giving Mike another moment to process what he'd said, the Doctor spoke again. "And whatever you are, Captain Mike Yates… whatever you've become or done since I last saw you… you are _not _the man who is capable of descending to the level the Master tried to take you to… _or _the man who can do this."

For a moment, the Doctor simply stood and looked at his old friend, Mike still aiming his gun at the Master's face as the Master stared silently back at him, until, finally, Mike tossed the gun aside and collapsed into the Doctor's arms, dry, heaving sobs shaking his body.

"It's OK…" the Doctor whispered, wishing he could say more to help his old friend as he uncertainly hugged Mike (He might be better at _initiating _hugs in this body, but he'd definitely never expected to receive one from Mike like this). "It's over, Mike… it's over… it's over…"

After a few moments, Mike stood back, having seemingly collected himself once again, and looked over at the Doctor with a slight smile.

"Thank you," he said simply.

"What are old colleagues for?" the Doctor replied, patting Mike reassuringly on the shoulder. "Just remember that _you _wouldn't do any of the stuff he made you do- coupled with the fact that anything you did no longer happened for anyone else- and you'll be on your way to making crucial steps to recovery-"

"Uh, excuse me?" the Master said, coughing briefly to draw the Doctor's attention back to him. "As pleasant as this little 'sympathy session' is, you still have to answer the obvious question right now; what happens to me?"

"You're my responsibility from now on," the Doctor said, as he turned back to look at the Master, shooting a brief apologetic glance at Mike before he fixed his gaze on the man who had tortured him for the past year. "The only Time Lord left in existence."

"What?" Jack said, looking at the Doctor incredulously. "Doctor, you can't _trust _him!"

"No," the Doctor confirmed, nodding briefly as he looked at the Master, momentarily wishing that Shada was still accessible- one of many locations that had been lost with the destruction of Gallifrey- before pressing on with the central matter. "The only safe place for him is the TARDIS."

"You mean you're just going to… _keep_ me?" the Master said, looking at the Doctor with a slightly scathing attitude.

"If that's what I have to do," the Doctor replied simply.

He'd be lying if he said that he was going to enjoy this- even without taking the last year or so into account, he and the Master hadn't spent any real time together since he'd been all but burnt to death by Susan's destruction of the matter transmuter without it ending in the Master's latest attempt to kill him-, but he didn't feel like he had any other choice.

As the only other Time Lord left, the Doctor practically had an _obligation _to help the Master…

* * *

As she stood to the side of the stairs, apparently forgotten about in the chaos that had just taken place, Rose couldn't believe what she was seeing.

Not only had the Doctor just undone everything she and the Master had spent the past year setting up in a matter of minutes, but now he was going to leave the Master _alive_?

It didn't make any _sense_; even if the Doctor had prevailed this time around, the Master would only come back and start this all over again, couldn't he _see _that? The Doctor might have won by doing things _his _way this time around, but that wasn't going to change anything for the Master in the long-term; he'd just come back and try again and cause the Doctor even more pain…

_So long as he was _able _to come back_.

For a moment after the thought had crossed Rose's mind, she couldn't believe what she was contemplating; the Master had taught her so much, and now she was going to use his _own methods _against him?

But…

If it meant being with the Doctor again…

If it meant giving him proof that she'd been right in what she was trying to do…

If it meant that she could redeem herself by sparing him the pain that the Master would cause him in the future

Rose nodded resolutely; before anyone could realise what she was doing, she reached over, grabbed a gun out of Captain Yates's holster, and fired it at the Master, striking him in the middle of the chest and sending him falling forward, the Doctor only just managing to catch him as Jack and Yates turned to look at her in shock.

"What the…?" Jack said, clearly confused at what she'd just done.

"It's for the Doctor," Rose said, her gaze shifting back to the two Time Lords as the Doctor lowered the Master gently to the floor, apparently ignoring her as he took in the sight before him.

Still, Rose wasn't too concerned; once the Doctor had confirmed that the Master was dead, she was sure he'd understand why she'd done what she'd done…

* * *

The Doctor was starting to wonder if anything was going to remain consistent today; he'd gone from being a physical age that not even the most stubborn Time Lord in existence would have remained in willingly back to his own age, the last year of Earth's history had been erased, the TARDIS was no longer a paradox machine, Martha was back in his life- and he _really _needed to talk with her as soon as he could; what he'd realised about his feelings all those months ago wasn't the kind of thing he could keep to himself-, and now Rose had gone and _shot _the Master after spending the last year by his side…

"Dying in your arms," the Master muttered, drawing the Doctor's attention back to the present. "Happy now?"

"You're not dying, don't be stupid," the Doctor said, pushing the apparent effort the Master was putting into speaking aside as he held his old friend. "It's only a bullet; just regenerate."

"No," the Master replied.

"One little bullet; _come on_-" the Doctor began (Honestly, he'd come through perfectly fine from being shot like this from what he remembered of his third self's 'other' regeneration on Dust; the confusion once he was back on Earth was only caused by the fact that he'd had to direct the TARDIS back to UNIT while mid-regeneration…).

"I guess… you don't know me so well," the Master muttered, looking at the Doctor with a momentary spark of strength. "I _refuse_."

"Regenerate," the Doctor said, refusing to acknowledge the Master's words; the man was the ultimate survivor, he wouldn't let himself die _now _after being willing to sacrifice his own _planet _to save himself…

"_Just_ regenerate," he repeated, almost unaware that he was shaking the Master's increasingly-still body slightly to try and provoke a reaction. "Please… _Please_! Just regenerate! Come _on_!"

"And spend the rest of my life… imprisoned with you?" the Master retorted, his expression somehow managing to express his scorn at the idea despite the evident strain he was causing himself (Even if Time Lords could choose not to regenerate under certain circumstances, it was far harder for them to resist the temptation when it was something as simple as a bullet; more large-scale damage such as the Doctor's own death of radiation poisoning would have been easier due to the increased likelihood of the regeneration going wrong).

"You've got to…" the Doctor whispered, unconcerned about what Martha, Mike or Jack might think about what he was saying; after spending so long alone, he was _not _going to abandon the only other Time Lord left like this!

"Come on," he continued, trying to hold back the tears in his eyes (He was _not _going to give the Master the satisfaction!), "It can't end like this. You and me, all the things we've done…"

He felt a tear trickle down his cheek, and fought to maintain

"Axons?" he said, giving the Master's body another slight shake to try and force his enemy to maintain his grip on life. "Remember the Axons? And the Daleks?"

Reference to the enemy that had brought him to this state left the Doctor almost feeling worse; when he remembered all those who had directly fallen fighting the Daleks, forced into an impossible conflict because he'd been too noble to erase the Daleks' foul taint from history before they'd even truly begun…

"We're the only two left…" he whispered weakly, even as the Master's face began to slacken right before him. "There's no one else…"

The Master continued to show no signs that he was willing to go through with the Doctor's request; if anything, he seemed to be losing even more energy as the Doctor looked at him…

"_REGENERATE_!" the Doctor practically screamed, his body now shaking from the effort of repressing his tears as he stared at the dying Master, the vague feeling of the other Time Lord's presence in the back of his mind fading with every passing second…

"How about that?" the Master said, actually managing to smile at the sight of his former friend so devastated. "I win."

For a moment, the two men simply stared at each other, each of them overcome by their own kinds of pain, until the Master swallowed and broke the silence, looking at the Doctor with a renewed fear.

"Will it stop, Doctor?" he said, his face displaying an apprehension that the Doctor had only seen the Master display when attempting another scheme that could result in his death if something went wrong. "The drumming… will it stop…?"

Then, after another moment's silence, the Master's eyes closed, and his body fell still.

The Doctor couldn't help himself; holding the body of the Time Lord he'd once known as Koschei close to him, he let one brief scream of despair and loss before he finally allowed the tears he'd been holding back since the Master first refused to regenerate to come through.

He wasn't sure how long he'd been lying there before he felt a soft hand lightly come in contact with his shoulder, the hand's owner clearly uncertain if doing anything at this time would be appropriate but clearly feeling like they had to do something…

Even through his pain, the Doctor couldn't help but smile; even without the faint-but-nevertheless-present 'sense' of his arton energy around her mind from their conversation on the coast of Australia so many months ago, he knew that it was Martha behind him…

It was too much; as soon as he felt her make physical contact, the Doctor had released his grip on the Master, turned around, grabbed Martha's arm, pulled down towards him, wrapped his arms around her, and began to cry once again, only vaguely aware of Martha as she reached up to lightly stroke his hair.

If this had been any other situation, he might have felt embarrassed; as it was, after the people around him had seen being tortured for a year, it hardly seemed practical to start worrying about what they thought of him…

Finally, he pulled back from Martha to look at her, tears still brimming in the corner of his eyes as he met her own… still so full of compassion even after all she'd seen…

If it wasn't for the fact that doing it in full view of her family over the Master's corpse was far from the appropriate place for it, the Doctor was sure he would have kissed her.

"He's gone…" he whispered instead, knowing without needing to ask that Martha understood why this affected him so deeply. "I'm alone… I'm so alone…"

"I know," Martha replied, reaching out with one hand to gently touch his cheek, her own eyes reflecting her understanding. "I'm… I'm sorry."

"'Sorry'?" a voice said from off to the side. "What's to be _sorry _about; he'll never do _that _again?"

Looking up, the Doctor's despair seemed to vanish as his eyes fixed on the speaker.

_Rose_…

* * *

Rose wasn't sure how it happened; one minute the Doctor was at the other end of the conference room, wrapped in the arms of that… _prissy bitch_… and then, no sooner had she spoken, he was standing right in front of her, his left forearm across her neck and her back against the wall, a sudden pressure in her nose as her ears popped…

Then she felt the cool hardness of a gun, aimed directly at her head, clutched in the Doctor's right hand, and a look in his eyes was all the confirmation she needed to understand her current situation.

Unless she could make the Doctor understand why she'd done what she'd done...

He was going to kill her.

* * *

AN: Well, anyone got any guesses for what happens to Rose next chapter after _that_? Those who guess right will receive a preview of the upcoming chapter!

AN 2: For those wondering, the reference to the Third Doctor's 'other' regeneration refer to an incident where the Doctor's history was altered so that his third incarnation, instead of dying of radiation poisoning after facing the giant spiders of Metebelis Three, died when he was shot on the distant planet Dust; the Eighth Doctor was later able to 'reset' his timeline back to the way it should have been.


	35. The Fate of Rose Saxon

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: Hope you like what I came up with for Rose's final fate; it's not perfect, but I think it works

Broken Faith

In the first few moments after the Doctor had pinned Rose to the wall of the conference room, a gun in his hand aimed directly at her predecessor's head, Martha momentarily wondered if she should step in and say something…

Then she saw the cold, hard, resolute gaze in the Doctor's eyes as he stared at Rose- the same expression he'd assumed when he'd told her to wait behind in the theatre while he went on ahead to confront the last member of the Cult of Skaro-, and knew that it wouldn't do any good; when the Doctor had that kind of glare in his eyes, she doubted she could say anything to stop him.

Noting Jack taking a step forward, Martha held out a hand to halt the immortal Time Agent before he could go any further; whatever happened here, the Doctor was clearly resolved to settle this matter himself, and nothing Martha, Jack or Captain Yates could say would change his mind.

She just hoped that he didn't give in to what was almost certainly going to be a very powerful temptation and pull the trigger; even after everything Rose had done while she was married to the Master, Martha definitely didn't want the Doctor to _kill _her…

* * *

"No…" Rose said, shaking her head as she stared at the Doctor, praying that he'd see her terror and stop what he was doing; he was just making sure she understood he sometimes didn't approve of what she'd done, he couldn't be about to do what it looked like he was going to do. "Doctor… you can't…"

"You. Killed. Him," the Doctor said, his voice low and even as he stared at her. "The only other Time Lord left… the only one of my kind still alive in the whole universe… and you _killed him_."

"He would have killed _you _eventually…" Rose said, her voice almost a whisper as she fought to prevent herself from crying, praying that she could make the Doctor see sense before he did something he'd regret once he'd had the chance to think. "You couldn't trust him-"

"That was _not _your choice," the Doctor said bluntly, his eyes narrowing as he glared at her, the tears he had been crying so shortly before still visible on his cheeks. "No matter what he was _now_… he was my friend once. I could have helped him… I had the chance to _try_… and you took that away."

"I did it because I _love _you-" Rose began.

"DON'T!" the Doctor yelled, his eyes narrowing in rage as he pressed his arm ever harder against Rose's throat, leaving her gasping for air against the pressure on her neck. "You betrayed everything I believe in… you decimated the planet I've dedicated my _lives _to defending… you sat back and allowed my greatest enemy to kill the people who have been the closest thing to a family I've ever _really_ known… you just killed the _only _other Time Lord left… and you have the _nerve _to tell me that you _love _me?"

"I… I do…" Rose said weakly, staring desperately back at the Doctor. "It was… for you…"

"I don't want it," the Doctor said simply, before his thumb moved to take the safety off the gun in his hand, his knuckles turning white as he gripped it all the more tightly. "You're _wrong_, Rose… and I'm not even _slightly _sorry about this…"

At the sound of the click, Rose could only stare in desperation at the Time Lord, tears gleaming in the corner of her eyes as she shook from the effort of controlling her sobs, clearly certain that one more sound out of her would provoke the Doctor into pulling the trigger…

For a moment, the Doctor could only glare at Rose, his eyes filled with a cold hatred that Rose could never recall witnessing before, even when he'd had less hair and was staring intently at the Dalek that had just destroyed Van Statten's staff, the gun in his hand pointing directly at her head just as his last self had aimed his salvaged alien weapon at what they'd believed at the time was the only other survivor of the Time War…

Then he leaned forward slightly, his face mere millimetres from hers, his eyes locked on her own as he spoke.

"I… _never_… would," the Doctor said, his voice low as he glared at her with cold resolution. "No matter what you think I am… no matter what you've done… no matter what you _believe _now… I. _Never_. _WOULD_."

He shook his head as he stepped back once again, throwing the gun off to one side, a faint trace of pity in his eyes even as he looked at her with evident disgust expressed all over the rest of his face. "And for you to believe that I could… there's _nothing _of what you were in you, Rose Saxon."

It was the emphasis on her last name that really made Rose feel like breaking down.

How could he focus on _that_… after everything they'd been through… all she'd done for him…?

"You did it for yourself, Rose," the Doctor said, gazing at her as he stepped back, releasing his grip on her throat. "It was never for me."

"No…" Rose whispered, her knees apparently no longer able to support her as she slowly lowered herself down to the ground, her eyes still fixed on the Doctor even as tears leaked out of them to ruin her make-up. "I did it for you… I _love _you…"

"You _killed _a man, Rose; no matter what he'd done, did you really think I'd be _grateful _for that?" the Doctor asked, his gaze still fixed on his former companion, the anger now filled with a hint of sorrow. "Did you _ever _know me…?"

"No…" Rose whispered, shaking her head as she continued to stare at the Doctor, tears in her eyes as she tried pathetically to deny his words. "I love you… I _love _you…"

"You don't," the Doctor said simply, staring sadly at her. "Just like _I_ was never in love with _you_…"

"No…" Rose whispered, her voice almost inaudible as she tried to deny the Doctor's words again, her legs feeling increasingly incapable of supporting her weight as she began to sink to the ground. "You do love me… you have to… you _have _to…"

* * *

As Martha and Jack walked up to join the Doctor, both of them could only stare silently as the girl who had once meant so much to the Time Lord broke down before their eyes, Rose curling up on the floor and sobbing into her hands, only the occasional word in her ramblings audible.

"God…" Jack whispered, staring sadly at the girl who'd once used her temporary godhood to try and save his life. "Rose… I'm sorry…"

Martha wasn't even sure if Rose was listening to anyone at this point- she looked to Martha like she'd long ago passed the point where she was really listening to anything going on around her-, but, in a way, even she couldn't help but feel sorry for the girl before her.

No matter what she'd become by the time Martha met her, Rose was still a companion of the Doctor…

And, if Martha had learned anything about life with the Doctor from all those other companions she'd met, it was simple; once you'd travelled with him, you had become a part of the most incredible- and unusual- family in all of time and space.

She might not particularly like the woman before her right now- for reasons beyond being jealous of any feelings the Doctor might have had for her-, but they still shared something that only a few people in the universe had ever experienced; it created _some _kind of connection, no matter how you looked at it.

"What do we do with her now?" Martha asked, looking back at the Doctor after a moment's silent staring at the sobbing woman before them, the rest of the people in the conference watching in silence as the Time Lord and his latest companions stood in judgement over the woman who had once been one of their own. "I mean… well, the state she's in, prison's not exactly an option, but I can't think of a doctor who could-"

"We don't need to do anything," the Doctor said simply.

Martha could only look at him in confusion.

"…What?" she said uncertainly.

"Look," the Doctor said simply.

Looking back at Rose, Martha's eyes widened as she realised what was happening.

Rose was… _fading_?

"Wh-what?" Rose said, her tears fading slightly as she looked at her body, the fear on her face apparently overriding her current distress. "What… what's _happening_…?

"The Paradox Machine," the Doctor explained, his tone solemn as he looked at Rose, his expression and voice giving no indication how this latest turn of events made him feel. "The Master drew you back into this reality through the tear in the universe, but since he was reaching back through time to use a tear that had already closed, your presence here was only sustained by the power of the TARDIS being channelled through the Paradox Machine he'd created from it to keep you anchored to this point in time; he did the same thing for those Toclafane he brought through to kill President Winters and pass on his message before he opened the primary rift, even if he only kept them around for a few minutes. With the machine gone…"

He shrugged. "The TARDIS is back to using its power to fix itself; without that power being channelled towards sustaining the paradox that brought you here, you're going back to where you should be."

"No…" Rose protested, staring in horror at her still-fading hands before she looked back up at the Doctor. "Doctor, you can't… don't take me… I _love _you…"

"You don't," the Doctor replied simply. "Goodbye, Rose Saxon…"

With that, Rose vanished, the last sight of her being an expression of pain and heartbreak that almost made Martha feel sorry for her.

_Almost_…

Then she looked over at the body of the Master lying only a few feet away from them- the body that had caused so much pain to the man she… loved (No matter how much she reminded herself that the last part of her dream had been only a dream, a part of her would always love the man standing beside her)-, and what little sympathy she'd had for Rose's plight faded.

She might not agree in torture, but after what Rose had done to the Doctor- even if the torture he'd endured had only been Rose's responsibility due to her _in_action rather than deliberate malice, her last act had been based on nothing more than a selfish, warped desire to 'redeem' herself-, Martha wouldn't be human if she hadn't wanted the other woman to suffer a _little_…

"She's gone back to her universe," the Doctor said, breaking into Martha's train of thought as he looked over at her and Jack. "The Paradox Machine pulled her through using the last remnants of the crack in reality that was created by the void ship; the same crack whose energy _I _exhausted saying goodbye to her. With the Paradox Machine gone, things have gone back to the way they were before it was created… and since, before the Machine was created, Rose _never_ came through that crack when I was talking to her…"

"She was never _meant _to come through it…" Martha continued, beginning to see where the Doctor was going with his current statement.

"So, now that the Paradox Machine isn't here to sustain her presence in this universe, she never came through the tear in the first place?" Jack finished, looking slightly uncertainly at the Doctor; evidently Time Agents didn't really get taught how to deal with _these _kind of time paradoxes.

"Yep," the Doctor confirmed, nodding once as he looked at the space where Rose had stood mere moments ago. "She's back where she started, with Mickey and her mother on the beach at Dårlig Ulv Stranden… with no _conscious _memory of what she became while she was here."

Martha blinked.

"That's it?" she said, looking over at the Doctor, unable to conceal a slight bitterness in her voice; after everything Rose had done to them, she was just going to forget it had ever happened?

* * *

"That's not it," the Doctor replied, shaking his head as he stared grimly at the place where Rose had been mere moments ago. "A side effect of travelling in the TARDIS for as long as Rose did- particularly when she only left me a few months ago from her perspective- is a certain… _resistance _to history being changed. Oh, if somebody were to, for example, go back to 1997 and save Princess Diana, you'd all remember what happened in the timeline where she lived, but on some level… somewhere in there… everyone who's travelled with me, and spent so much time _out _of time, would know that something wasn't right about the world."

"And… since what happened to Rose was so… _specific _to her…?" Jack elaborated, nodding slightly in understanding.

"Precisely," the Doctor confirmed. "Even if she never _consciously _remembers what happened to her in this timeline… on some level, she'll always know what took place here."

He sighed slightly as he turned back to look at the area where Rose had been only moments ago, his voice low as he stared sadly at the spot where she'd vanished from his life once again.

"For the rest of her life, whenever she dreams... whenever she dozes... she'll always remember that she became a monster…" he said, unable to conceal the pain he felt at that thought.

"No," Jack said, reaching over to place a hand on the Doctor's shoulder himself, looking resolutely at the Time Lord as he did so. "The Master _made _Rose a monster, Doctor; all _you've_ done is do what you could to give her a chance to become the girl we knew again."

For a moment the Doctor simply stood in silence, his gaze still fixed on where Rose had been, before he turned back to look at Jack with a brief smile.

"Thanks," he said simply.

Then he turned to look at Martha, and his smile broadened.

"Martha Jones…" he said, a wide grin on his face as he looked at her. "You just saved the world."

"Not bad for five minutes' work, is it?" Martha smiled, indicating the clock that indicated that only five minutes- for the rest of the world- had passed since President Winters' assassination.

"Not in the least," the Doctor replied, smiling back at her before he turned around to look at the door to the conference room. "Anyway, we'd better get going; I've got a bit of work to do that I'd like to get started on as soon as possible involving my box…"


	36. Revelations of the Companions

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: Well, here it is; the chapter you've all been waiting for, as the Doctor _finally _says those three little words to Martha Jones (Hope you like it; this bit was _not _easy…)

Broken Faith

Later that night, in a distant quarry some miles away from London- the same location where, according to the information the Doctor had salvaged from the old UNIT files, the Master's TARDIS had first come to Earth during the second Auton invasion, the field now hollowed out for construction purposes-, the Doctor stood alone in front of a wooden pile, the Master's body lying wrapped and bound on top of the pile.

It wasn't exactly a traditional Gallifreyian funeral, he knew, but with the loss of the Matrix- especially after all the damage the TARDIS had sustained during his eighth self's last act as he fought to save the Nestene feeding grounds-, coupled with the need to keep Time Lord DNA out of the hands of anyone who might want to misuse it, it was the only way he could be certain.

Martha, Jack and Mike had all offered to help him out, of course- even the rest of the Jones family had volunteered their assistance-, but the Doctor had turned them all down; this was something he had to do himself.

Besides… after all the effort they'd gone to helping him get the TARDIS down to the ground from the _Valiant_- the coordinates lock had been easy enough to lift with the isomorphic controls, even if the ship still had some way to go before it had finished regenerating as it waited opposite Martha's parents' house-, he didn't feel right, asking them to help him say goodbye to someone who'd caused them so much pain.

They understood why _he _was doing it, of course, they just didn't want to participate themselves…

Standing solemnly off to the side as he lit the torch, the Doctor walked forward and set the pyre alight, stepping back to watch as the bound and wrapped body of his old enemy began to burn once more (Images of a man with a beard restored to full height by the healing fires of Sarn, only to apparently die as the calorific gas intensified the heat, flashed through the Doctor's mind only to be pushed aside; this wasn't like that).

It was over.

He was alone again…

_No_, he reminded himself, a slight smile on his face as he shook his head at that thought.

He might be the last of his kind…

But, as he'd told the Master time and again throughout the Year That Never Was, he had his companions.

They weren't always perfect- Klein alone had caused him _serious _trouble before joining him, and even after he'd grown to like them the likes of Leela, Tegan and Lucie had still given him more than a few headaches-, but they _were _his family.

No matter where he went in time and space, he would always have them.

With that, the Doctor turned around and walked away, leaving the fire to incinerate all that was left of the last Time Lord; he'd come back and see about clearing up the ashes after he'd taken a check on what needed to be attended to by the TARDIS's architectural reconfiguration systems…

* * *

"Time was," Martha said the next morning, leaning against the rails in front of the Pierhead Building on Cardiff Bay, looking out at the bustling streets before them, "every single one of these people knew your name. Now they've all forgotten you."

"Good," the Doctor said, looking briefly around at Mike and Jack as they stood on either side of him and Martha; Mike was officially meant to report for counselling at UNIT to deal with the memories of what he'd done under the Master's control, but he had requested a day or two to catch up with the Doctor before he left, resulting in him accompanying the other three down to Cardiff to drop off Jack.

"Back to work," Jack reflected, hopping over the railing to land on the other side, turning to look at the others with a slight smile.

"I really don't mind, though," the Doctor said, looking over at Jack with an apologetic glance; with everything that had been happening since they'd arrived in the present, he'd never had a chance to apologise to the other man for his earlier attitude. "Come with me."

"I had plenty of time to think that last year," Jack said, shaking his head slightly as he glanced back at the water-tower near Roald Dahl Plass. "And I kept thinking about that team of mine…"

He shrugged as he looked back at the Time Lord. "Like you said, Doctor; responsibility."

"Can't argue with that," Mike confirmed, nodding at Jack with a slight smile. "With everything this planet's had to deal with since the seventies, we need all the help we can get."

"Can't argue with that," the Doctor confirmed, holding out a hand to Jack, only to grab the offered hand and shove his sleeve back to reveal the vortex manipulator.

"Hey, I need that!" Jack yelled, as the Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and aimed it at the device in question.

"I can't have you walking with a time-travelling teleport," the Doctor said, activating his favoured tool as he ran it over the manipulator. "You could go anywhere, _twice_- second time to apologise."

As much as he might trust Jack, with time the way it was now- with the rest of the Time Lords gone and only him left to 'pick up the slack'-, the less casual time travellers he had active at this point the better…

"And what about me?" Jack asked, looking at him with a renewed earnest look. "Can you fix that; will I ever be able to die?"

"Nothing I can do," the Doctor replied, shaking his head apologetically. "You're an impossible thing, Jack."

Jack smiled.

"Been called that before," he said, before he slipped into a slightly more respectful stance and saluted the three of them. "Sirs; ma'am."

As he turned around, the Doctor momentarily thought that was it, but then Jack turned to look at them again with a renewed question in his gaze. "But I keep wondering… what about aging? 'Cause I can't die, but I keep getting older; the odd little grey hair, you know? What happens if I live for a million years?"

"I… really don't know," the Doctor said, glancing over at his other two companions to exchange a brief smile with Martha; Mike's contact with the captain had been relatively limited, and so the reasoning behind Jack's question didn't strike him as much as it did the other two.

"OK, vanity," Jack admitted, shrugging slightly. "Sorry, can't help it; used to be a poster boy when I was a kid back on the Boeshane Pennisula. Tiny little place; I was the first one ever to be signed up for the Time Agency."

As he smiled slightly at the memory, the Doctor couldn't help but sympathise. The memory of nostalgia for old 'glories'- even if they had never been asked for- was something you never really got tired of; he still remembered the appreciation he, Jamie and Victoria had received during his return trip to Vortis…

"They were so proud of me," Jack continued, a wistful smile still on his face at the memory. "'The Face of Boe', they called me."

The Doctor was only just able to restrain the incredulity on his face at that last comment; the implications were almost shocking.

_The Face of Boe_…

"See you around," Jack said, before he turned around to hurry towards the water tower, leaving the Doctor and Martha staring incredulously after him.

"Can't be…" Martha said at last.

"No," the Doctor replied, shaking his head. "Definitely not, no."

As Martha began to laugh, the Doctor couldn't help but chuckle slightly himself at the mental images invoked; the thought of Jack Harkness, the most incorrigible flirt he'd ever met, becoming the _Face of Boe_…

"Well," Mike Yates's voice said, cutting through the amusement of the other two, "I'd best be off; I've only got a couple of hours to get to my first therapy session."

"You're sure you'll be all right?" Martha asked, looking at the man uncertainly. "I mean, I don't know what you _did_, but-"

"It's hardly the first time I've been under the control of something else, Miss Jones; I'll… get there, I assure you," Mike said, nodding at the younger woman before he snapped off a quick salute at her. "And congratulations on a job well done, ma'am."

"Thanks, soldier," Martha replied, saluting him back with a casual smile.

"Any time," Mike replied, before he glanced over at the Doctor. "Doctor, could I just… have a quick word?"

Noting Martha's curious glance, the Doctor simply shrugged apologetically and walked over to join Mike, the two standing a short distance away from Martha in the middle of the pavement.

"Tell her," Mike said simply, the brief glance at the woman behind the Doctor making it clear who he was talking about.

The Doctor groaned.

"Is it _that _obvious?" the Time Lord asked, rolling his eyes slightly as he looked at Mike. "I mean, first it was _Ace_, then it's you…"

"I _did _spend the better part of three years working with you, Doctor- not forgetting that brief meeting with the you who wore that cricket jumper and my later meeting with you when you wore that scarf-; even with the other differences taken into account, I've never seen you look at _anyone _you were working with back then the way you look at her," Mike said, a slight smile fading from his face as he looked at his old colleague. "It's… well, it reminds me of the way I used to look at Jo."

The Doctor didn't know how to respond to that. The possible relationship between Mike and his assistant- more than his assistant; Jo had been almost his _daughter_ as far as he was concerned as time went on, really- had been one of those areas of daily life in UNIT where nobody was ever entirely certain whether to bring it up; even Benton and Bell's attempt to set the two of them up on a blind date- which the Doctor had interrupted to take them to Nooma and Karfel; he still felt a bit sheepish about the Nooman visit, even if Karfel had been fairly quiet apart from the discovery of Magellan's experiments- had been more of a joke than anything…

To have Mike bring it up like that…

Even after so many years- particularly with Jo's divorce taken into account-, the Doctor knew better than most that some injuries never really healed; the fact that Mike had willingly brought up something like that said a lot about how he felt about this issue.

"Do everyone a favour, Doctor," Mike said, smiling slightly at the Time Lord. "Tell her how you feel."

"A favour?" the Doctor repeated, looking uncertainly at Mike.

"A lot of us worried about you only ever having friends," Mike said by way of explanation. "There are some times when you need more than a friend by your side, Doctor; if you manage to find someone who can fulfil that role for you… I think all of us would be happy to see that."

Smiling broadly at Mike, the Doctor leaned over to give the former UNIT captain a quick hug before he pulled back, a broad grin on his face.

"Captain Mike Yates," he said, smiling in approval at his old friend. "You might go a little off at times, but you always come through when we needed you."

"Thanks," Mike replied, before he sighed and indicated the street behind him. "Well, I'll be off; see you around."

"See you," the Doctor replied, waving after Mike as the other man turned to hurry off towards a nearby taxi, leaving the Doctor standing silently on the pavement before he heard Martha coming up behind him.

"So… back to London?" she asked, looking curiously at the Doctor.

"Well… maybe not _quite _yet…" the Doctor admitted, nodding slightly as he looked back at Martha, a thoughtful expression on his face. "Before we go back, care for some dinner?"

Martha blinked.

"Dinner?" she repeated.

"Well, I know a couple of decent restaurants- just so long as we don't go to Bistro 10; I had an… awkward time when I was last there-, and I just thought it seemed like the best chance we'd probably get to talk about… stuff…" the Doctor said, trying to make his voice sound vague to avoid giving Martha any specific ideas; after the way he'd screwed things up so far, he was at least going to _try _and tell her how he felt the right way…

"If you're interested?" he asked, raising a curious eyebrow. "My treat, of course…"

"Sounds… good," Martha replied, smiling slightly uncertainly back at him; evidently the invitation had surprised her, but she was at least evidently willing to accept the offer. "Where and when?"

* * *

In general, the Doctor had to admit that allowing Martha to pick from the list of restaurants he remembered being in Cardiff was a good call; the Italian she'd selected- apparently on a combination of a whim and an interest in some Italian cuisine- had proven to be highly enjoyable, and the conversation as Martha told him about some of the people she'd met during the Year had been particularly interesting.

"Hold on; you met _Fitz_?" the Doctor said, smiling broadly at Martha at the reference to his old friend as the two of them tucked into their food, Martha enjoying a pizza- one of many things people had never had the resources to make during the Year- while the Doctor chewed on his stake after a starter of spaghetti. "He and Trix doing all right?"

"Yeah, they gave me a lift across a bit of South America; sounded like they were doing well for themselves before the Toclafane came," Martha said, smiling back at him.

"Yeah, well, they always did manage to land on their feet; Trix once went back to 1485 and ended up becoming an aunt figure to the princes in the Tower…" the Doctor said, smiling at the memory.

"Hold on; the princes in the Tower?" Martha repeated, looking at the Doctor with suddenly renewed interest. "As in, _the _princes in the Tower?"

"Richard and Edward prior to their supposed execution at the hands of Richard III, you mean?" the Doctor replied, nodding at her with a smile. "Yep, although that's actually not what happened; left the boys with a professor from the present who'd helped me out in the latest crisis after they were abducted by a bunch of crystal skeletons who wanted control over time… long story, but trust me; it happened."

"Right…" Martha said, her tone betraying a scepticism even as her smile made it clear that she was enjoying the current meal out.

The Doctor had to admit, he was rather enjoying this too, and not just because of the fact that it was the first decent meal he'd had since the Master captured him; he'd had bowls of varying kinds of slop up on the _Valiant_, and he'd been too busy getting the TARDIS repairs started since leaving the ship to bother about eating…

Then, as he looked up at Martha as she took another bite out of her pizza, her dark hair draped around her shoulders, dressed in the red leather jacket and dark trousers that she'd worn when she first entered the TARDIS, somehow looking more beautiful than Reinette or Scarlette had ever looked back when he'd known them, he remembered the main reason he'd come here (Not that he could have forgotten, of course; it had left him feeling somewhat panicked ever since he'd sat down).

"Martha…" he said, taking a deep breath- this wasn't something he was looking forward to, but if what he was going to say later went down well he'd rather get this said now than risk someone bringing it up later- to give himself more time to think before he continued, "this might seem like a bit of a change of topic, but… you remember… when we first met, you mentioned your cousin, Adeola? The one who died at Canary Wharf?"

Martha's breath caught in her throat briefly at the memory; even after over a year- two if she counted the now-erased reign of the Master-, the memory of her cousin's loss still hurt; the physical similarities between the two had left them feeling more like sisters than cousins, particularly given Martha's occasionally-rocky relationship with the more flighty Tish…

"What about her?" she asked, looking uncertainly

"I was there when she died," the Doctor said, his expression grim as he looked at her.

Martha blinked.

"You… you were?" she said, evidently trying to control her emotions at the implications of that statement (Although she wasn't jumping to the _worst_ possible conclusion, the Doctor noted with relief; he'd just have to hope things progressed well from here). "How… how did it happen?"

"That's… complicated," the Doctor explained, swallowing slightly- God, he hadn't been this uncomfortable when he'd been forced to talk to the police and Jackie about why Rose had been away so long; why was _this_ a problem?-, "She'd been… look, you remember the 'ghosts' that appeared before the Canary Wharf incident?"

"The ones that became those metal… _things_?" Martha asked, shuddering slightly at the memory; the sight of something that looked like an alien knight walking towards her as she'd been about to leave the flat; she'd only just managed to get back inside and up the stairs before it could really see her.

"Those were Cybermen," the Doctor explained. "They were human at first- actually came from Earth's twin planet originally, although those ones came from an alternate Earth-, but after centuries of drifting through space, they were forced to augment most of their pre-existing body parts with cybernetic implants, until they reached the point where they even had their _brains _altered to remove all emotion to cope with the pain of what they were doing to themselves…"

"Oh my God…" Martha said, staring in horror at the Doctor before she realised the implications of what he was saying. "They… they killed Adeola?"

"Worse," the Doctor replied grimly. "When I got to Canary Wharf- she worked for the original Torchwood; one of the computer programmers, as far as I could tell-, she was involved in an experiment to tap into a rift in the Void- the null space between universes-, which the Cybermen were able to use to gain access to this reality. In order to come through in greater numbers, they had to have agents on this side- people they'd converted to become like them-, and…"

He paused, looking at Martha for a moment to determine how she would react to what he was about to say, before he concluded his sentence. "And Adeola was one of the people they converted."

Martha's eyes widened in shock.

"Oh my God…" she whispered once again.

"It wasn't a total conversion- she still _looked_ human-, but…" the Doctor began, pausing for a moment, his expression grim as he stared back at Martha, before he finally continued. "There's no easy way to say this, so I'll say it; the Cybermen completely replaced the thought processors of her brain with Cyber-implants, allowing them to use her as their inside agent to grant the rest of the Cybermen access to Earth. By the time I realised what was happening, she'd already opened the tear enough to allow the Cybermen through; all I could do…"

He swallowed, looking nervously down at the table for a moment, before he looked back at Martha. "All I could do was terminate the signal being transmitted by the implants."

"And that… turned her off?" Martha said, looking at the Doctor uncertainly.

"There was nothing anyone could have done," the Doctor said, his head lowered as he spoke, unwilling to meet her gaze. "I'd only meant to shut the implants down- I'd encountered the technology before and then it had only been basic motor control that was easily terminated; I'd assumed the Cybermen had done something similar here-, but the implants had gone too far into her brain already, taking out everything that made her who she was; with them deactivated, there… there wasn't anything left in her mind to keep her going on her own."

For a moment the Doctor and Martha just sat in silence, the Doctor giving Martha time to think about what he'd just said, before she looked back at him with a slight smile.

"Thanks," she said simply. "If those… implants… were all that kept her moving…"

She swallowed slightly before she looked at him again. "If there was enough of her in there to know about it… Adeola wouldn't have wanted to live like that."

The Doctor could only smile slightly back at her in response to that statement.

"Thanks," he said briefly, his eyes saying more than words ever could in that moment.

It hadn't been an easy thing to tell her, but it had to be done; if he was going to start… dating her, he supposed… he'd rather she knew about the roll he had in her cousin's death before he actually said anything else.

For the next few minutes, the two simply returned to finishing their food, subsequently ordering a couple of pieces of cake for dessert before the Doctor coughed slightly and straightened up in his chair, looking resolutely at Martha as he spoke.

He hadn't been this nervous since the time he'd tried to prepare the delta wave emitter to destroy the Dalek army at the end of his last body- that incarnation had lasted a _ridiculously _short time, really-, but he was _going _to say what he'd come here to say.

"Martha Jones..." he said, taking a deep breath as he looked at her, regret clear on his face. "If I ever made you feel you were second-best... or that you were a replacement... or that I didn't notice you... I'm sorry."

"It's OK-" Martha began.

"It's _not_," the Doctor insisted, shaking his head as he looked at her. "Martha, over the course of my lives I've had several companions- you've met some of them now-, but even when they were _official_ replacements- like when Liz transferred back to Cambridge back when I worked for UNIT during my exile in the seventies and Jo was hired to take her place-, I _never _treated them as anything but their own people, but I got so caught up in my own pain after Rose... left... that I did it to you without even really realising I was doing it."

For a moment he looked down, unable to believe what he'd done back then- it was a miracle she hadn't left earlier, really; sometimes he could be a real _prat _in this body-, before he looked back up, trying to make sure Martha understood his sincerity. "Instead of doing what I _should _have done… doing what would be the _right _thing… and moving on… letting myself recognise what I _had_… I let myself get stuck in the past- which she'd _already _helped me get through in my last life- and looking at what I _didn't _have, always comparing you to _her _rather than looking at you as _you_… and realising…"

He smiled slightly at her. "Well, just realising how… _brilliant _you are, really- and I'm not _just _talking about after what you just pulled off, either."

Martha could only stare in silence.

She'd never heard the Doctor sound so... _passionate_... about something that _wasn't _Rose; he genuinely _did _seem sorry about the way he'd treated her...

But did that _mean_...?

"Look," the Doctor continued, looking increasingly awkward as he continued to speak, "I'm not good at this sort of thing- haven't been good at it in any of my bodies, really; the first seven or so just weren't that… _capable_… of connecting to people on that level- for so many reasons that I'm sure we don't want to get into right now-, my eighth body had too much other stuff to deal with- mostly memory-related- to really try and explore it even if he sometimes _thought _about it, and even my last incarnation couldn't exactly... well, we _definitely _won't go there; even I've only just realised just _how _screwed-up I was then," he said, waving a hand awkwardly before he looked back at her. "The point is that... well, when you get down to the essential details... what I'm _trying _to say here is... look, I know I'm going on a bit, but in the end... when Jack and I were trapped up there, the Master sending Rose down to try and talk me into giving up... with me not really listening to her, I didn't have much else to do but think… I realised that, for all that I hadn't seemed to connect with you… for all that I'd tried _not _to get that close to you after what happened to me last time…"

He paused for a moment, swallowed slightly nervously, and then looked Martha directly in the eyes. "I love you."

For a moment there was only silence, until Martha finally spoke.

"How dare you?" she said, her voice cold as she glared at him.

* * *

AN 2: Well, c'mon, after the way the Doctor treated her at times in the show- particularly after what she went through in "Human Nature" before the Family arrived-, did you _really _think I was going to make it _that _easy for Martha to accept this sudden shift?


	37. Confessions of Apologetic Hearts

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: Sorry about the delay; this chapter was NOT easy to write- coupled with the fact that free time's been a bit tricky to come by- but I hope you'll find it worth the wait.

Broken Faith

The Doctor blinked.

"What?" he said, looking at in surprise; he might have been expecting disbelief after his original attitude towards her, but 'How dare you?' hadn't even been on the _list _of possible answers he'd created in his mind for this scenario.

"I just spent a _year _going through _Hell_… I had to see everyone around me _die_… and you… you-" Martha said, before she finally stood up and stormed out of the restaurant, brushing past a waiter who appeared to have been bringing them their pieces of cake.

"Oh, _no_…" the Doctor muttered, shaking his head as he stood up, pulling out some money- he'd dipped into his old UNIT account before he came to Cardiff just in case of a situation like this- and tossing it onto the table as he glanced up at the waiter apologetically. "Sorry, lovely meal and all, but I have to go; keep the change, bye!"

With that he hurried after Martha, weaving around the crowds outside the restaurant as he fixed his eyes on Martha's red leather jacket as she hurried down the main street, barely aware of her surroundings as she stormed along the pavement. The Doctor only just noticed her turning down a nearby alley- most likely deserted; even at her worst, Martha wouldn't stop paying attention to a detail like that after spending a year surviving on a nightmarish Earth under the Master's reign- before he almost passed the alley himself, pausing to glance down as he saw Martha standing beside a couple of what looked like old oil drums with a fire escape at the other end (A part of him vaguely noted the similarities between this alley and the alley where she'd entered the TARDIS, but he pushed that thought aside; this _wasn't _the time to ponder coincidences).

"Martha?" he said, walking uncertainly towards her after a moment's silence in which neither of them moved (Although he noted his companion's shoulders shaking from evidently barely-suppressed emotion). "Martha… I'm sorry if-"

"Leave me _alone_!" Martha yelled, turning around to glare at him, the faint trace of tears visible in the corner of her eyes even as barely-restrained rage was also visible in them. "Don't you think you've _maybe _screwed up my life _enough_? After all the _shit _I've been through since I met you, you don't get to just… _apologise _by saying you _love _me-!"

"This isn't about _that_!" the Doctor replied, looking desperately at her. "Martha, I'm _incredibly _impressed by what you did, but that's _not _why I'm saying this; I realised it on the _Valiant_-"

"What, you mean _after _you ran into _Rose _again?" Martha spat.

Even the Doctor's sometimes-questionable people skills could see where she was going with that line of questioning.

"Wha- it's not like _that_, either-!" he began.

"What, you mean it's _not _that your ex-girlfriend turns out to be a psycho _bitch_, so I'm the convenient replacement?" Martha countered, enraged tears trickling out of the corners of her eyes. "Be honest; that's all this is, isn't it? If she'd never been there, you'd _never _be saying this-"

"_No_!" the Doctor protested. He briefly thought about grabbing Martha's shoulders to try and reinforce his point, but swiftly forced that thought aside; physical contact wouldn't help to reinforce his point any more than words would. "Rassilon, I'm not going to lie and say that seeing Rose like that wasn't a _part _of this, Martha; I'm just saying that's not the _only _reason for it! She made me _think _about how I felt, but she couldn't _make _me feel anything! I'm almost thirteen hundred-!"

"_Thirteen_ hundred?" Martha repeated; she clearly knew it was a stupid thing to focus on, but she almost couldn't help herself. "I thought you said you were _nine _hundred-"

"I commented to Rose that I'd been travelling for nine hundred years in my last body and just started using that as my age; I was… well, I was feeling a bit frustrated at her mother implying I was older than I looked so I think I just rounded out the years I didn't like; it's always hard to recall how I was thinking when I did little things like that in previous bodies…" the Doctor said, trailing off in embarrassment as he took in the still-present glare on her face before he continued. "The _point_ is, I have been travelling for _centuries_, going through _nine _bodies in a time frame, and I've had approximately enough relationships- _this _kind of relationships- to count them on one human hand! Even if my first few bodies were never interested in… well, in _that_… I've still had… _those _kinds of feelings before, but back then I either wasn't emotionally ready to commit like that or there were other factors in the way…"

He paused for a moment, clearly looking for the best way to say what he was about to say, before he nodded resolutely and continued to talk. "But then I was me- well, the previous me, anyway; he was the one who actually _realised _this-, and all the old issues… all the old reasons I had for _not _wanting to go that far… all the factors that stopped me taking that last step… I realised they didn't matter-"

"Just like _I _didn't, right?" Martha countered.

"Wh- I didn't mean _that_!" the Doctor yelled; he'd known Martha wasn't exactly going to automatically accept this, but her stubborn refusal to believe him was getting almost ridiculous. "Look, I _know _this isn't going as well as it could, but I already said I'm not good at this kind of thing; relationships like this weren't exactly _common _on Gallifrey, and even after I left I never felt entirely certain about taking things _further_; even those occasions where I _did _act on these… feelings… before the Time War were based around complicated circumstances…"

He paused, taking a couple of deep breaths to calm himself- his current line of conversation wasn't getting him anywhere; he needed a moment or two to himself before he dug himself a _bigger _hole than the one he'd created already- before he continued. "Look, what I'm _trying _to say here is that, for all the times I _thought _about doing… _this_… with people I knew in my earlier lives, I was never really _comfortable _with it- always worried about things like what my people would think, what they might insist on happening, what the other person in the relationship would expect of me, things like that-, but I…"

He swallowed uncertainly as he looked at Martha once more. "In the end, whatever excuses I made up at the time, I was never… _certain _enough back then, I suppose. I knew that the people I… _felt _that way about could handle life with me, but I was never certain they could handle _life _with me-"

"And it took walking across Earth when your worst enemy was in charge to 'prove' that I was worth it?" Martha spat, glaring in frustration at him. "God, your standards are _ridiculous_-"

"The only thing that changed my 'standards' is _me_ realising that I didn't _need _any standards!" the Doctor retorted, staring back at her with an ever-increasing intensity and desperation before he stepped back and swallowed, clearly uncomfortable with what he was about to say. "Look… without any concerns about how the _rest _of the Time Lords would react to the idea of me doing… _this_… with another race- I mean, they might have been my people, but they were always rather arrogant; it took one of my companions helping me stop an invasion of Gallifrey to realise other species _could _contribute _something_, and I don't even want to _think _about what they'd have been like if things developed _this _far between me and anyone back then-, I realised that the only thing that could _really _stop me from at least _trying _a relationship was my own fear…"

He paused, swallowing slightly as he looked at Martha, before he continued. "And then I met you… and I didn't _need _to be afraid any more-"

"Because I kept on hanging around with you even when you treated me like crap?" Martha retorted, taking a brief moment of pleasure at the shocked expression on the Doctor's face. "Truth hurts, huh?"

"Wait a… I _what_?" the Doctor said, looking at Martha in shock; he'd known he hadn't been the best friend to Martha at times during their time together- he already knew that he still had a _great _deal of apologising to do for the time they'd spent stuck in 1913 and 1969-, but she actually felt _that _way about it? "Look, I know that things weren't always great, and I _know _I've been a bit of a prat, but I always appreciated how hard it must have been for you; I just never knew _how _to apologise-"

"You didn't even _try_-!" Martha countered.

"I…" the Doctor began, before shaking his head in frustration. "Rassilon, I thought that you _knew _I cared about you; you've _never _just been another face in a long line, I just thought that you could see _that _as easily as you worked out how I was telling you a load of _crap _about Gallifrey! Rose had a _fit _when she learned she wasn't the first person I've travelled with-"

"Which I knew the _moment _I got in that ship, as you so _politely _told me-" Martha retaliated.

"But _she _always needed reassurance that she wasn't just another person I'd chosen to travel with me; you… I… I thought you _knew _that that's not how it was!" the Doctor protested. "I don't just pick up people at random and take them gallivanting around with me for _nothing_-"

"The first humans you travelled with your _granddaughter_- and thanks for mentioning _that_, by the way- and your granddaughter's_ teachers _who wandered in by _accident_-" Martha continued.

"You met Ian?" the Doctor said, smiling briefly at her- he'd dropped in on Barbara's funeral when he'd noticed it in the papers during that time he and Ace were trying to fix the TARDIS, but he hadn't actually visited his old friend afterwards; sometimes it was too awkward to actually _meet _the people who'd changed your life, particularly after they'd made him face up, time and again, to how uncomfortably like other Time Lords he'd been back then, and how he needed to change that now that he was out in the universe- before he shook his head resolutely. "We'll talk about that later; the _point _is that when I did _that_- abducting them and running off in a panic-, I was still getting used to the idea of travelling at _all_ after I'd spent so long alone back on Gallifrey that I was barely comfortable having _anyone _around! By the time I got used to the idea of actually _liking _people around- which actually didn't take _that _long, really; I think it was the bit where Ian was framed for murder that really got me thinking about what they all meant to me-, I only ever asked people to stick around- if they didn't ask to come with me themselves- if _I _thought they could handle it; people might wander into the TARDIS for some reason or another during my travels, but I only _kept _them with me if one of us _asked _the other if they could come along for a while…"

He paused for a moment, clearly lost in his memories, before he looked at Martha with a renewed sense of purpose. "For so long, I was content with just having a long string of friendships, sharing the universe with people who saw it the way I do, who wanted to explore what was out there with me as guide and friend and teacher and- in some cases- brother or father… but then I was the previous me… no more need to worry about the judgement of the Time Lords, memories of a century seeing humanity at their best and worst, memories of striving and hoping and working and falling with them with no knowledge of the future… and I realised that, given the right person, a life with a human _might _be possible…"

Reaching out towards Martha, he paused for a moment, waiting to see if his gesture was unwanted, before Martha nodded slightly at him with a small smile as the Doctor gently touched her cheek.

"I know it's a bit… belated," he said, his voice soft as he spoke, one thumb reaching up to brush a small tear from the corner of her eye. "But… if you still want me… if you've got room in your heart for a foolish Time Lord who nearly missed what was right in front of him… the woman who proved that she _could_ be the right person when she risked her life to save a man she barely knew as anything more than a stranger in a hospital… my hearts are yours for the asking."

For a moment Martha simply sat in silence, a reflective expression on her face as she looked at the Doctor, before she finally spoke.

"And… where does Rose fit into that?" she asked, looking uncomfortably at him.

"Why?" the Doctor repeated, looking uncertainly at her.

"You… you said that you realised your old reasons for not falling for someone didn't matter any more," Martha continued, trying not to think too much about what else the Doctor had said- most of his previous reasons for doing nothing involved Gallifrey; there was no point worry about _those _right now, even if she made a mental note to ask him about those later (If there _was _a later; she still wasn't exactly _happy _about him dropping this on her on top of everything else)- as she looked back at him, "but you also said that it would have to be the _right _person to make you think about having a life with someone… so why did you fall for Rose?"

The Doctor didn't need to know as much as he knew about humans to know what Martha was saying; was he only interested in her because he _could _be interested in a relationship in this body and she was just his chosen 'test subject' to see if he could do it after the 'previous' one had failed, or was he genuinely interested in a relationship with her because she was _her_?

He swallowed slightly nervously.

_This _wasn't going to be a comfortable conversation…

But, after all that she'd been through since he sent her off the _Valiant_- to say nothing of what she'd been through while she _was_ with him; he was definitely going to have to figure out a way to properly apologise for that whole mess with John Smith (He was just glad Joan hadn't taken him up on his 'offer' at the end; even if he _had _only asked her to travel with him because of the residual elements of Smith in his head after so long as his human counterpart, things would have been awkward in the TARDIS between her and Martha even _before _his mind fully cleared up)-, if anyone had earned the right to a decent explanation, it was Martha; she'd put up with him being a bigger idiot than his previous self had perceived Mickey to be, so he could cope with embarrassing himself now.

"You remember how Jack mentioned that Time Lords regenerate when we're fatally injured?" he said, looking uncertainly at her.

"Yeah…" Martha said, nodding slightly.

"I encountered Rose shortly after my eighth regeneration, after which she stayed with me until some while after my ninth- actually, I regenerated out of that body mainly to save her life when she absorbed the heart of the TARDIS during that incident when she brought Jack back to life; I took the energy out of her along with the cellular damage she'd sustained and it destroyed most of my cells before I regenerated-; to put it simply, things were a bit… rough… for me back then," the Doctor explained. Waiting for a moment to make sure Martha had processed this- he was grateful she hadn't decided to ask any more about what he'd been like back then; he'd need to tell her more about his other selves beyond what she'd seen of them in that 'dream' when he could-, he then continued. "Whenever I regenerate- particularly since it only happens to me when I'm dying of something; if I ever _chose _to regenerate I'd be fine afterwards but violent death makes everything a bit rushed-, I commonly suffer a period of what's best described as post-regenerative trauma; depending on the severity and nature of whatever killed me last time, for a time my new incarnation can be… unstable."

"Unstable… how?" Martha asked, clearly wondering where he was going with this.

"Well… as an example, my fourth self spent a few weeks in a coma after he was killed by radiation poisoning- I don't think he ever really 'stabilised' throughout his life, really-, my sixth self tried to strangle his companion for a few seconds- that was the most unstable I've ever been; _very_ unlikely to happen again, and I snapped out of it before I could do any real damage- after dying of a fast-acting virus, and my eighth self didn't even know who he _was _for several hours after he regenerated, although that was mainly due to the anaesthetic my previous self had been injected with before it happened; a heart surgeon thought that there was something wrong with me…" the Doctor trailed off, noting that Martha was starting to look slightly frustrated, and decided to skip to the relevant details (He _really _needed to work on this incarnation's habit of going off on irrelevant tangents if he was going to make this work).

"The point is," he continued, a resolute gaze in his eyes as he looked at her, "I met Rose just a few _hours_ after I'd regenerated- and only slightly longer after I'd regained my memory of what I'd done to end the Time War; that's another long story I'll have to tell you later- while I was tackling the latest invasion of the Nestene Consciousness, and… no matter where I went or what I did… I just kept on running into her while I was tracking down the Autons… she kept on trying to find out more about _me_… until, in the end, I felt like I _had _to let her into my life. When I felt like I'd just lost everything, Rose made me feel like I had _something _again… when I felt like I'd lost everybody, she wouldn't leave me alone…"

He sighed slightly. "I… well, I guess, in the end, I felt like she… like she was what I needed right now; someone who wanted to be with me, someone who cared about me, someone I… _could_ protect…"

"Like… like you couldn't save Gallifrey?" Martha asked uncertainly; psychology wasn't exactly her field, but she'd picked up enough in her studies to have an idea of where the Doctor was going with this. "You couldn't save your planet, so… you used Rose as… a substitute for it?"

"Yep," the Doctor confirmed, nodding back at her, the expression on his face making it clear how much he regretted that action. "Then, after I lost her… after I'd _failed _her… after spending so much time- Hell, after sacrificing one of my _lives_- trying to keep her safe, I…"

He sighed. "Well, I spent so much time trying to convince myself that she'd been worth all that effort- particularly after she took a _serious _risk to try and help me; there's this whole thing involving her leaving a message for herself to give her the idea of what to do that's all rather complicated- that I ended up… _glamorising _her in my mind, I guess is the best expression, after she was trapped on Pete's World; I built her up to this… _impossibly _high standard in my mind… made myself remember her without her flaws and needs… because, after I'd allowed myself to open up so much to the possibility of a life with her, it was… _safer _to use that memory as an excuse… than open myself up to the chance that I'd be hurt again."

He swallowed for a moment, shaking his head in a self-recriminating manner, before he looked back at Martha. "You were _never _second-best, Martha- I never _ask _anyone to come with me if I don't think they can handle it; Hell, I once took someone _home_ after they made a _serious _mistake, although I only even let them come along because someone else insisted-; I just… I wasn't ready to _show _you that I didn't see you like that when I still had… Rose-related issues to deal with…"

"I… Right…" Martha said, nodding slightly uncertainly as she looked at the Doctor, trying to straighten things out in her own mind before she continued. "So… in other words, you latched on to Rose as a human connection after a traumatic experience, and after you lost her you... exaggerated her abilities as a companion to yourself to stop yourself getting hurt again?"

"Pretty much, yep," the Doctor admitted, his slightly flippant tone at odds with the grim expression of regret in his eyes as he looked back at Martha, the casual tone vanishing as he continued to speak. "But with you… there was no post-regenerative trauma. There was no _need_ to connect- when we met I wasn't planning to cut myself off, but I wasn't actually looking for anyone new to travel with either-, there was no desire to be worth your sacrifice, there was no fixation on a dream because I'd lost the reality…"

He sighed, sitting in silence for a moment as he tried to gather courage, before he spoke again. "There was you, Martha Jones, and _only _you… the you who wasn't scared to be on the Moon in the afternoon, the you who saved a hovercar from being battered by the Macra before I could open the motorway, the you who defeated the pig slaves with one last-minute gambit, the you who survived two months hiding from the Family of Blood even as I- or what was _left _of me- treated you like nothing, the you who kept fighting when I'd been captured by the Zygons, the you who entered a collapsing mine to save me from the Clade... and I fell in love with you without even realising I'd done it-"

"But you _didn't_!" Martha yelled, glaring at him as tears gleamed in her eyes again. "I spent _months_ with youand you never said _anything_-"

"_I didn't know _HOW _to say anything_!" the Doctor yelled back. "I'd spent so long _never _acting on those kind of feelings that it was easier to use Rose as an excuse to do _nothing _than risk saying the wrong thing; I didn't even _realise _there might be something there because _I was trying to stop myself doing something wrong_-!"

"What, so you decided to make me feel like _crap_ rather than just face up to what you felt and _tell _me?" Martha said, glaring in frustration at the Doctor. "I spent _months _thinking that I was _worthless_-"

"I always _told _you when you'd done something good-"

"You tell a _dog _it did a good job; that doesn't mean you _love _it!" Martha retorted, tears now in her eyes as she stared at him. "God, I spent _ages _waiting for you to just _see _me, and-"

"Martha, I saw you so well that I trusted you to look after me for three whole months; doesn't that say _something _about what I thought about you?" the Doctor interjected, looking desperately at her as she paused. "We're talking about my _existence _here; if I'd had even the _slightest _doubt I would have gone to find someone else- probably could have asked Alistair for a favour- to keep an eye on me… but I chose to put my faith in _you_, because I trusted you…"

He paused for a moment, looking her in the eyes as he spoke, praying that she'd take it _slightly _better when he said the words the second time. "Because I love you."

Once again, silence dominated the alley, until the young medical student facing the Time Lord before her spoke again.

"But you never _said_…" Martha began weakly, still staring at the Doctor as though waiting for the other shoe to drop, for him to hurt her like he had before, walking all over her feelings without even apparently knowing they were there…

"Because I was scared," the Doctor admitted, a slightly shameful look on his face as he continued to stare at her. "I'm nearly thirteen hundred years old, I'm on my tenth incarnation, I've experienced and witnessed things and beings that not even my fellow Time Lords could have imagined possible, I've lived through the entirety of Earth's twentieth century, I've had several long-term companions and made what seems like _hundreds_ of friends during almost nine hundred years of travel- to say nothing of a century of exile-, and I was still scared… because _you_ make me feel things I've never felt before. I've always cared for my old companions, and there's been some who were closer than others- I've even seen a few of them as my own children, even if I'd never _tell _them that-, but with you…"

He swallowed slightly, as he looked up at the roof of the TARDIS. "It's… it's _deeper_. There's been a few companions who… well, who I might have felt _something _like that for even if none of me back then were... well, emotionally _ready _to explore it... but even then it was more of a personal thing- I was close to them as _people _and that was it-; with you, there's a…"

He stopped for a moment, his cheeks- much to Martha's surprise- actually slightly red, as though he was blushing, giving Martha a moment to wonder about what he had been about to say before a possible explanation occurred to her.

Could he mean…?

She knew that it was a bit childish and shallow, but somehow, the idea that the Doctor found her _sexually _attractive as well as _personally_ attractive…

Then she shook her head slightly, forcing her mind back on track as she glared at him.

"Well… so what?" she said, glaring at him. "Look, I just… _whatever _I might- _might_- feel for you, I can't just… I can't _leave _now, all right? After everything they saw… everything he _did-_"

"You have to help your family," the Doctor finished for her, nodding briefly in understanding. "Believe me, I was _not _even _thinking _of asking you to leave if you thought they needed you; actually, given that you've still got your medical studies to get through- and I think I've kept you away from _those _long enough; even what you've been looking over in the library in your spare time can only take you so far-, I was…"

He smiled briefly at her. "Well, I was thinking… maybe _I _could stay _here _for a bit?"

Martha's eyes widened at the implications of that statement for a moment- although she had to wonder when he'd found out about her visits to the TARDIS library; had the ship told him about them or something?-, only to narrow her gaze again as she looked at him.

"Hold on-" she began.

"Look, I've still got the deeds for a couple of flats I owned around here a couple of bodies back- I was stuck on Earth with no memory of who I was while the TARDIS was repairing itself; I had to live _somewhere_-, so you don't have to worry about that; it's just…" the Doctor trailed off for a moment, evidently uncomfortable about the current line of discussion, before he finally sighed and looked back at Martha. "Well… after seeing so many old friends this last year, I'd… like to try and get to know them again."

Martha could only stare uncertainly at the Doctor.

Could he mean…?

"If you want to stay with your family…" the Doctor said, pausing briefly as he looked at her, his expression somehow betraying both resolution and apprehension, "…then I'll be sticking around for a bit as well."

He smiled slightly at her. "And while I'm at it… if you've got the time to spare between exams, Martha Jones, any chance you'd be interested in a date at some point?"

For a moment, Martha couldn't believe what she'd just heard.

Ever since she'd met the Doctor, the idea of him being grounded in one place had seemed almost a contradiction in terms; he wandered around through time so much that trying to stay in one place seemed like trying to pin down a fish to one specific part of a river…

And here he was, offering to stay in one place and time… for _her_?

Even as mad as she was at him for dropping this on her right now, Martha couldn't help but feel touched.

Besides…

After that last 'speech' she'd given Rose during the flight up to the _Valiant_- about how Rose had never bothered to ask the Doctor about _him_, apparently content to travel in the TARDIS without ever exploring who the Doctor was as a _person_-, wouldn't it only be right for her to explore a relationship with the Doctor when he was essentially just another man living his life on Earht?

"A date with you somewhere we _didn't _travel to by TARDIS?" she said at last, smiling slightly back at him; she wasn't _quite _ready to forgive him yet, but she felt like she was getting there. "I have to admit, I wouldn't mind seeing _that_…"

"Thanks," the Doctor replied, smiling briefly back at her before a thought occurred to him. "Although… before we do that, there is _one _thing I'd like to do before I put the old girl somewhere to rest…"

* * *

AN 2: Regarding my segment about the Doctor's age, given that the Seventh Doctor _specifically _stated that he was 953 shortly after his sixth regeneration, coupled with the century or so the Eighth Doctor spent on Earth waiting for the TARDIS to repair itself, it seems logical to me that the Doctor's current claims to be nine hundred are simply referring to the years he's spent travelling in the TARDIS, most likely 'discounting' the years he wasn't going around in the ship, such as the years before he acquired the TARDI in the first place or when he was stuck on Earth in his eighth life (An odd lie to tell about his age, I admit, but given that the Fourth Doctor was known to claim to be 756 when he was actually 759, it makes a certain sense)


	38. Time Crash

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: It's short, but I _really _wanted to write this; I give you "Time-Crash", with Martha Jones present for the meeting of the Doctors, and I hope everyone likes it

Broken Faith

The next morning, as Martha stood inside the TARDIS, she couldn't help but wonder if she was about to make the biggest mistake of her life in the next few moments; even after the Doctor's promises that he'd stay with her in one time for a while, he'd convinced her to take just one trip in the TARDIS to make sure that everything was working before they settled back into their old lives (Martha was just grateful that it had been her day off coming up when she'd joined the Doctor, which at least minimised what she'd missed).

The Doctor had assured her that he wasn't about to do anything drastic- just a quick hop to make sure the TARDIS's restoration after the destruction of the Paradox Machine had gone according to plan-, but a part of Martha- the part that had been trampled on and ignored so often- couldn't help but wonder if he was going to take this as an opportunity to not come back by claiming that he couldn't control the coordinates or something…

It wasn't that she didn't _trust _the Doctor- after walking all the way around Earth for him it would have been ridiculous if she _didn't _trust him-; it was just that…

Well, after everything that he'd put her through- no matter how much he clearly regretted it-, she'd be lying if she said she'd _totally _accepted this latest 'change' in his feelings for her; Hell, they hadn't even _kissed _yet (Although Martha freely acknowledged that she was the one who was mainly reluctant to go that far; after the way the Doctor had treated her earlier, she'd prefer to be sure before she did anything like _that_)…

"Are you all right?" the Time Lord's voice suddenly said, breaking into Martha's train of thought as he glanced back in her direction from where he'd been going over the console readings.

"Mmm?" Martha said, looking back at the Time Lord, suddenly uncomfortable at the thoughts she was thinking when faced with the obvious concern on his face as he looked at her; the Doctor might not be the best at showing his feelings, but ever since his confession he'd really been showing her a lot more attention than he'd done earlier. "Yeah, I'm fine; just… thinking, really."

"Anything in particular?" the Doctor asked, looking at her with a slightly comforting smile, reaching up to place one hand on her arm in a comforting gesture.

"Just… hoping this goes well," Martha said at last, deciding to stick to the truth as much as possible while avoiding voicing her uncertainties; she might have a couple of issues she needed to work through when it came to the Doctor, but voicing them wasn't going to make them go away and would probably just hurt _his _feelings for no reason.

All he could really do to help her get over her issues was continue what he'd been doing so far; after what he'd endured while being held captive by the Master and Rose, Martha wasn't vindictive enough to want to cause him _more _pain.

"Look, there's nothing to it," the Doctor said, smiling reassuringly at her, drawing her mind back to the present as he walked over to flick a couple of switches on the console. "A quick hop forward in time a few months, followed by a quick hop back, and once we're home it's the traditional time-traveller's route until you've passed your exams and ready to decide what to do next."

"And… you?" Martha asked, looking uncertainly at the Doctor (A part of her smiled at the fact that he'd referred to her time as 'home', but didn't bother bringing it up; he probably didn't even realise he'd done it, but it definitely helped her current mood). "I mean, you can't just sit around in a flat all day…"

"Oh, don't worry about that; even without going back to UNIT, I've got a couple of strings I could pull to get into a couple of places-" the Doctor began, only for the TARDIS to suddenly shudder violently and alarms to blare all around them, leaving Martha with a momentary feeling of everything happening around her at once- including a momentary disorientation as the TARDIS seemed to spin a complete 360-degree angle-, ending as the ship stabilised once more.

"What the…?" Martha asked, looking at the Doctor in confusion as she picked herself up from the floor where she'd fallen, leaning against the console as she looked incredulously at the Time Lord. "What was _that _about?"

"I don't know…" the Doctor began, moving over to study the console controls, only to bump into someone as he-

Martha blinked incredulously at the sight of the new arrival now standing on her side of the TARDIS.

She…

She _knew _him.

She'd only seen him in her dream, and he'd looked a bit younger then- she made a mental note to ask why he seemed so much older if the Doctor didn't answer it himself-, but the long beige frock coat with red lining and a stick of celery pinned to its lapel over the white cricket jumper and red-and-white-striped trousers was unmistakable.

This man standing before her, now looking between her and the Doctor incredulously, was one of the Doctor's past selves…

_In the same place as the Doctor_?

Martha didn't pretend to be a science-fiction expert, but everything she'd read about time travel had made it clear that meeting yourself wasn't a smart thing to do…

"What?" the Doctor said, moving away from the console to look at the new arrival, clearly just as confused

"What?" the other man said, staring back at the Doctor with an intensity that somehow mirrored his other self despite his own more obviously aged face.

"_What_?" the Doctor repeated, his gaze still fixed on his younger self- even if the other man looked older than he did-, the two Doctors staring silently at each other for a moment before the new arrival broke the silence.

"Who are you?" he asked, his tone clearly conveying frustration with this strange new arrival

The Doctor smiled.

"Oh, _brilliant_," he said, a broad grin on his face as he looked at the younger Doctor

"Oh my God…" Martha said, walking slightly around the console to better look at the other man. "It's… he's _you_…"

"I know; brilliant, isn't it?" the Doctor said, smiling over at her before his expression became more serious as he looked at his younger self. "I mean, totally wrong, big emergency, the universe goes bang in five minutes-"

"I'm the Doctor," the other man said, staring resolutely at the man before him, apparently having decided to ignore their earlier ramblings in favour of the immediate need for answers. "Who are you?"

"Yes, you are," the Doctor replied, nodding with an ever-broadening grin at the man before him. "You are the Doctor."

"_Yes_, I'm the Doctor," the other Time Lord- or the same Time Lord, Martha reminded herself- said, looking scathingly between the two. "And you are?"

"Ooh, there it goes, the frowny face!" the Doctor said, pointing at his younger self's glare with an enthusiastic smile, much like someone who'd just rediscovered a childhood toy. "I remember that one!"

"Uh… talking of his face," Martha put in, looking over at the Doctor uncertainly. "I thought he was… well, _younger _than this?"

"Oh, you mean the sagginess?" the Doctor said, smiling reassuringly at her as he took one of his other self's cheeks between his thumb and forefinger and shook it slightly. "Don't worry about it; that's just from having two of us together, it should all snap back when we get him home- he'll be able to close that coat again-, _but never mind that_!" he continued, grabbing the lapels of the other Doctor's coat to demonstrate the man's apparently wider-than-usual stomach as he continued to grin in a manner Martha hadn't seen him smile like since they'd first arrived on Malcassairo. "Look at you! The hat, the coat, the crickety-crick-cricket stuff, and the… stick of celery."

As his voice trailed off while he stared slightly at the item in question, Martha decided to take the opportunity to speak herself.

"It's definitely an… interesting choice, Doctor," she said, walking around to stand beside her Doctor- it was the easiest way to distinguish them, as much as she disliked the possessive connotations; it was thinking like that that had contributed to Rose's mental state near the end, even if the Master had definitely played a part in what had happened to her-, smiling slightly at the other. "The celery, I mean; I can't think of many people who could make that work-"

"Yes, look, not meaning to be impolite, Miss, but I _do _have other matters to attend to right now," the younger Doctor said, nodding briefly at Martha before he shot another glare at the other Doctor. "And it would be _very _much appreciated if you weren't _ranting _in my face all the time, understood?"

"Check," the Doctor replied with a brief smile.

"Thank you," the other Doctor replied, turning around to study the console-

"Oh, the back of my head!" the Doctor smiled, his grins spreading across his face once more as he leaned over to stare at the aforementioned body part.

"What?" the other Doctor said, looking over at Martha in confusion only to turn away when Martha couldn't stop herself from chuckling at the sight; the idea of the Doctor confusing _himself _was just _hilarious_…

"What have you done to my TARDIS?" the younger Doctor said, looking over sharply at his other self before staring around the console room. "You've changed the desktop theme, haven't you? What's this one; coral?"

"'Desktop theme'?" Martha repeated as she glanced over at the Doctor incredulously.

"Well, in its simplest translated analogue, yeah; English doesn't really have a term yet for what he _really _means- the _brainy specs_!" the Doctor said, cutting himself off mid-explanation as his younger self pulled out a pair of half-moon glasses, practically bouncing on his feet as he spoke. "You don't even _need _them; you just think they make you look a bit clever!"

Before the Doctor could respond to that, the alarms suddenly started blaring once again, prompting the younger Doctor to remove his glasses and look urgently around the console room.

"That's an alert," he said, barely-contained apprehension in his voice before he hurried over to study the console. "Level five, indicating a temporal collision; it's like…"

He paused for a moment, clearly sceptical at the readings before him. "It's like… two TARDISes have merged? But there's definitely only one TARDIS present… it's like… two time zones at war in the heart of the TARDIS…"

"And that's bad?" Martha asked, looking uncertainly at the younger Doctor as her one walked around the console to lean against the other side as he studied his younger self.

"Bad?" the younger Doctor repeated, looking at her apprehensively. "My dear…"

"Martha Jones," Martha replied, cursing herself as soon as the words had left her lips; what would the consequences be of the _younger _Doctor learning her name before she met his future self?

"Martha Jones," the younger Doctor said, ignorant of her momentary shock, "if this isn't stopped now, it could cause a hole in the space-time continuum the size of-"

As Martha's Doctor turned a nearby monitor, the Doctor she was currently addressing glanced at the information on it, only for his expression to fall slightly.

"Well… actually, the exact size of… Belgium?" he said, as though he was slightly disappointed.

"Belgium?" Martha repeated, looking up at the Doctor in blue in surprise. "That… doesn't seem like much?"

"It's still big enough to do _some _damage if it gets out of hand, Martha," the Doctor replied, before walking around the console to pat his other self on the shoulder with a broad grin. "But don't worry; with me and me here, this should be _easy _to sort out; actually, if you could just position yourself over _here_…" he continued, taking his other self by the shoulders and moving him back a few feet so that his back was to one of the columns before turning back to look at Martha. "And Martha? If you could just go over _there_ and turn that circular lever when I tell you to, followed by giving the helmic regulator- that bit just there- a quick pump afterwards-"

"Hold on; what are you _doing_?" the cricket-clad Doctor yeld as Martha hurried over to take up the aforementioned position, unable to stop herself from smiling at the thought of being allowed to pilot the TARDIS. "We're about to generate a black hole that could swallow the universe-"

"Yeah, and I'm sorry about that, by the way; all been a bit hectic lately and it slipped my mind-" the Doctor began.

"Hold on; _your _fault?" Martha repeated, looking back at him incredulously.

"It was only an _accident_; I forgot to put the shields up when we left, had… other things… on my mind…" the Doctor said, looking over at Martha with a pleadingly apologetic look before a smile spread across his face once more. "Still, not to worry about that; easily sorted… hold on a minute… _now_!"

No sooner had the Doctor finished saying 'now' than what sounded like a bell began to ring, a deep, resounding gong reverberating throughout the TARDIS as the Doctor ran around Martha to take up position next to her, his hands hovering over a set of buttons on the console as he nodded in confirmation at her. Not giving herself time to think about what she was doing- if what the younger Doctor said was true the stakes were too high for her to waste time asking questions-, Martha rapidly turned the dial the Doctor had pointed out to her earlier before pumping the second control, only stopping when the Doctor nodded in confirmation at her.

"Right then," the Doctor smiled, his fingers flying over the switches on the console panel before him, "thermal buffer vented, Helmic regulator floored… all we need now is the Zeiton crystals fried and we're set-"

"_You'll blow up the TARDIS_!" the younger Doctor yelled, reaching out to grab the other Doctor's hands.

"Only way out," the Doctor replied, his voice slightly breathless at the rapid pace he'd been moving at earlier.

"Who told you that?" the cricket-clad Doctor yelled.

"_You _did!" the Doctor replied, pulling his arms free and _slamming _one palm down on another nearby control…

* * *

When the sudden blinding whiteness had faded, Martha wasn't sure what shocked her more; that she was still here, or that the two Doctors were actually relatively calmer now.

"Supernova and black hole at the exact same instant…" the younger Doctor whispered incredulously.

"Explosion cancels out implosion," the present version clarified, looking over at Martha with a slight smile.

"And… everything's all right?" Martha asked, taking a guess based on their continued existence.

"Yep," the Doctor confirmed, smiling over at his other self.

"Far _too _brilliant…" the celery-wearing Doctor said, looking breathlessly between the two of them. "I've never met anyone else who could fly the TARDIS like that-"

"Well, to be fair, Martha's only just started lessons-" the Doctor began.

"You didn't have _time_ to work all that out!" the Doctor yelled, as his future self hurried over to study another console. "Even _I_ couldn't do it!

"I didn't work it out," the Doctor replied, nonchalantly turning back to look at him. "I didn't have to."

The younger Doctor's eyes widened in understanding.

"You remembered…" he said.

"Because you will remember," the Doctor confirmed.

"You remembered being me, watching you, doing that," the other Doctor said, a slight smile on his face as inspiration dawned. "You only knew what to do because… I saw you do it."

"And remembered it happening when the timelines caught up, of course," the Doctor said, glancing over at Martha as though guessing her already-planned question; if he'd _remembered _her being here like this all along, why had he treated her that way? "It's an automatic process, really; whenever I meet myself the younger me's memories are automatically erased by the TARDIS until we catch up to the future self we met in order to limit any potential paradoxes…"

"It all gets rather complicated, really, Martha; trust me, even _we_ get confused sometimes in these situations," the younger Doctor said, smiling reassuringly over at her. "And I must say, it's very nice to meet you-"

The sound of the TARDIS emitting a strange warbling sound cut off what the new arrival might have been about to say next.

"Right!" the Doctor in the blue suit said, stepping back from his other self to examine the console. "Wish you could stick around, Doctor, but TARDISes are separating; time's up, it's back to long ago…

He paused at that statement, glancing curiously up at his other self. "Where _are_ you now anyway; that's still a bit hazy… Nyssa and Tegan? Cybermen and Mara and Time Lords with funny hats and the Master? Oh, he just showed up again, same as ever."

"Oh no, really?" the younger Doctor said, his nonchalant tone answering one question for Martha at least; this was a Doctor from _before _the Time War, otherwise he wouldn't have been so nonchalant about the idea of seeing the Master again. "Does he still have that rubbish beard?"

"No, no beard this time," the Doctor replied, before shrugging slightly. "Well, a wife…"

The younger Doctor had just opened his mouth as though he was going to say

"Oh," he said, looking briefly down at himself as his voice suddenly sounded like it was coming through water. "I seem to be off. What can I say? Thank you, Doctor."

"Thank _you_," the Doctor replied, inclining his head at his other self.

"I'm very welcome," the younger Doctor replied, vanishing from view only to suddenly return as the Doctor flicked a switch, the past Doctor solidifying once more.

"You know," the Doctor began, picking up his other self's hat from the console and walking towards him with a casual smile to place the hat in the cricket-clad Doctor's hands, "I loved being you. Back when I first started, at the very beginning, I was always trying to be old and grumpy and important, like you do when you're young… and then I was _you_! And it was all dashing about and playing cricket and my voice going all squeaky when I shouted; I still do that, the voice thing, I got that from you. Oh-," he raised one foot up onto the console to display his shoes, the other Doctor simply smiling in amusement as he put his hat back on, "and the trainers. And…"

Stepping away from the console and reaching into his pocket, the Doctor pulled out his glasses and put them on, grinning away at the man before him as he did so.

"Snap," he said simply, before he stood still, his arms folded behind his back as he looked at the man he'd been. "'Cause you know what, Doctor? You were my Doctor."

Nodding briefly at his other self, the Doctor merely raised his hat and smiled.

"To days to come," he said simply.

"All my love to long ago," the Doctor replied.

"And I look forward to meeting you, Martha Jones…" the other Doctor replied, smiling over at Martha as she stood by the console, before he blurred and vanished as suddenly as he had arrived, leaving the TARDIS with only two inhabitants once more.

"So…" Martha said, turning to look at the remaining Doctor incredulously, trying to get her head around what had just taken place. "You met yourself… your present self… when you _now _was your _future_… but you only remember it _now_… because it already happened to _you_…"

"Precisely," the Doctor confirmed with a smile. "After all, if I _knew _I was going to survive to become my future selves, how-"

Conversation was suddenly cut off once more as the console room shook once more, leaving the Doctor and Martha suddenly surrounded by dust and piles of rubble as something seemed to suddenly _hit _the TARDIS.

Turning to look in the direction of the impact, Martha's jaw dropped.

What looked like an old ocean liner was sticking inside the TARDIS.

"What?" the Doctor's voice said, prompting Martha to glance back to see him staring at a buoy that must have fallen from the ship-

Her eyes widened at the sight of the name on the buoy.

_R.M.S. Titanic_.

It was official; they couldn't leave _this _latest conundrum unanswered…

* * *

AN 2: To cut off any expectations before they get started, I'm NOT going to be rewriting the whole of "Voyager of the Damned"; apart from the Doctor not being QUITE as close to Astrid as he was in that episode, the plot was essentially the same, with any differences being fairly minor and involving Martha being present more than anything else. The next chapter begins during the Doctor's confrontation with Max Capricorn, and will include a summary of the preceding events; hope you like it


	39. The Voyage Ends

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: The conclusion of "Voyager of the Damned" with Martha Jones- starting as the Doctor confronts Max Capricorn; everything else has worked out basically the same way that it did originally-, and I hope it proves worth the wait; after this confrontation, we go on to a VERY unexpected meeting for the Doctor and Martha…

AN 2: To anyone who considers this chapter short, I apologise; I wanted to cover the REALLY essential bit of "Voyage of the Damned" so that I could get on to the last chapter as promptly as possible

Broken Faith

As the Doctor stared at the cyborg before him, he almost couldn't believe it; why was it that, no matter _where _he went in time or space, there was always _someone _who wanted nothing more than to get more money by whatever means necessary?

He'd only stopped here because he and Martha had both enjoyed the idea of checking out a starship duplicate of the _Titanic_ after stumbling across it- Martha had particularly enjoyed the chance to try out a couple of the clothes she'd found in the TARDIS wardrobe (And the Doctor would be lying if a part of him hadn't enjoyed the sight of Martha wearing a couple of the more casual Time Lord robes that Susan and Romana had brought to the ship and never gotten around to wearing; it had almost reminded him of home)-, and then they'd both found themselves stuck in the middle of an attack by homicidal robotic angels as the rest of the ship's passengers began to die, as well as losing two of their group while travelling across the ship's engines (He found it particularly tragic that Martha had managed to save Morvin's life when he nearly lost his balance, only for him to later sacrifice it to stop that last Host, even if there'd been no other way to stop the robot with the resources available; the only good thing about that trip was that at least they'd only lost one other person)…

Quite frankly, once he'd stopped this ship from crash-landing, he was _definitely _going to have to take Martha somewhere nice; if she'd consent to another trip, maybe they could take some time out on Florana before returning home…

"So," he said, looking coldly at the head of Max Capricorn attached to his life-support system (Why the man had to have something so large when Bannakaffalatta had managed perfectly well with something that just replaced his chest he didn't know; maybe whatever had happened to Max had happened before cyborg technology had refined to the point where that kind of implant was possible), "you scupper the ship– wipe out any survivors, just in case anyone's rumbled you- and the board find their shares halved in value."

"Ohh," he added after a moment's pause, his gaze narrowing as the full implications- to say nothing of the sheer self-centeredness- of Max's plan hit him, "but that's not enough, no! 'Cause if a Max Capricorn ship hits the Earth, and destroys an entire planet… outrage back home, _scandal_! The business is wiped out!"

"And," Max continued, rolling forward slightly with a teasing smirk in his tone that clearly conveyed his satisfaction with his plan, "the board thrown in jail, for mass murder."

"While you sit there safe, inside the Impact Chamber," the Doctor continued, barely bothering to hide the contempt in his voice; destroying an entire planet for the benefit of another race could possibly be excused as an act of desperation, but destroying a planet for the benefit of _one _person…

If it wouldn't have damaged his hand, the Doctor would have punched the glass separating him from Max's head.

"I have men waiting to retrieve me from the ruins," Max continued, drawing the Doctor's attention back to the present, "and enough offworld accounts to retire to the beaches of Penhaxico Two… where the ladies- so I'm told are very… _fond_ of… _metal_."

"So that's the plan," the Doctor said, his voice the low tone this incarnation always used when he was particularly angry. "A business plan. A _retirement _plan!! Two thousand people on this ship, six _billion_ underneath us, all of them slaughtered, and _why_? Because Max Capricorn is a loser!"

As much as he'd hated what the Master had done to Earth- even _without _what he'd done to Rose taken into account-, at least he'd had some kind of long-term plan behind it all; what Max was planning to do was _totally _unforgivable by any standard.

"I never lose!" Max countered, rolling towards the Doctor with a low growl.

"You can't even sink the Titanic!" the Doctor countered in frustration; maybe if he could convince Max to withdraw now-

"Oh, but I can, Doctor!" Max replied with a casual smirk. "I can cancel the engines from here!"

The Doctor had barely had time to process that last statement when an alarm suddenly sounded, the ship suddenly shuddering around them as Max smirked nonchalantly at him (The scientific part of the Doctor wondered if Max had triggered the engine shutdown by thought or if there'd been a control inside the life-support-system that he'd activated, but once again pushed that aside; this wasn't the time for those speculations).

"You can't do this-!" he began

"Hold him!" Max interrupted, causing the two Host that had been standing on either side of the Doctor to grab his arms in an iron-tight grip."

"Not so clever now, Doctor?" Max replied, before his expression took on a gaze that the Doctor could have almost called regret if it came from someone who wasn't doing what Max was doing. "Shame we couldn't work together; you're rather good. All that banter, and yet not a word wasted."

As soon as that sentence had finished, Max's wistfulness faded to be replaced with an enthusiastic smile. "But it's time for me to retire. The _Titanic_ is falling; the skies will burn; let the Christmas inferno commence."

For a moment, as Max turned away, all the Doctor could remember was the nightmare of the Inferno Project, seven lifetimes ago and a whole universe away; an entire world burning to death before him, with nothing he could do to stop it and the only action he could take being to return to his own world to prevent that same nightmare happening there, alternate versions of the people he knew risking and sacrificing their lives just to give him a _chance _at saving a world that would never know about them or their sacrifices…

He'd always sworn he'd never let that happen to _his_ Earth.

And now… here he was… powerless and alone, about to be decapitated by a robotic angel of all things (Even if he regenerated after this post-decapitation incarnations were always difficult; he'd definitely _not _regain consciousness in time to do anything useful, even if he was stable enough to do anything when he _did _wake up…), with no hope of escape…

"Max Capricorn!" a voice suddenly yelled from off to the side.

The Doctor's eyes widened in shock.

_No_… he thought, turning his head to see the sight he'd hoped he wouldn't have to see…

Martha Jones, sitting in the fork-lift truck, still wearing the long dark green dress she'd found in the wardrobe, her gaze fixed on the robotic life-support system before her.

"I've got a complaint to make," she said grimly.

With that, her hand slammed off the handbrake and the truck's wheels spun rapidly as she raced towards Capricorn's box, the company owner turning to face it in a rage.

"Martha, _don't_-!" the Doctor began, just in time for the truck to hit the box, wheels spinning as the fork-lift lifted the box's wheels off the ground- the Doctor vaguely thought he heard another noise in the background-, before the truck charged forward, sending Max hurtling towards the railing holding people back from the engines…

"_MARTHA_!" the Doctor screamed, as the truck went over the edge; he _couldn't _have lost her now, not when they'd barely even _started_…

"Yes?" a voice said from behind him.

The Doctor barely even registered the Host releasing their grip as he turned to look at the source of that last comment in shock; Martha Jones, still wearing her dress- albeit a bit scuffed and torn around the knees now-, standing just across from him, a small silver object in her right hand that the Doctor instantly identified.

"What the… my sonic screwdriver?" he said, staring at the object in Martha's hand; it might have only been the Mark II sonic screwdriver- he hadn't used that version since his third incarnation; he'd always meant to look for it, but after Jo's departure he'd gone back to the TARDIS to be alone and ended up losing track of the jacket with the screwdriver in its pocket while he was clearing out her things from her room…

"Oh, it _is _yours?" Martha said, smiling at him as she looked at the screwdriver with a slight smile that brought his attention back to the present and away from the recollections of the past. "I found it in the wardrobe room when I was picking this out and gave it a couple of tests to make sure that it was what it looked like; I managed to figure out a setting that I could use to keep stuff in place- that's what I used to keep the truck going without me in it; locked the pedal down once I'd set it on course-, but-"

Further explanation was cut off as the Doctor suddenly walked up to Martha, wrapped his arms around her, and pulled her face towards his for a brief but passionate kiss, before he pulled back to smile at her.

"Thanks for not dying," he said simply.

Martha simply shrugged.

"Happy to oblige," she replied, the broad grin on her face doing more to express her feelings about the kiss than any words ever could before her expression became more serious. "So… shall we stop this ship?"

"Indubitably," the Doctor replied, as he stepped back slightly to indicate the Host. "And, given that they should have now reverted to _me _as the source of authority, care to travel via angel to the bridge?"

* * *

It was only around an hour later that the Doctor and Martha found themselves back in the TARDIS once again, smiling slightly at the sight of Mr Copper and Astrid dancing off into the snow on the scanner, grinning broadly at the thought of what was coming up for them in their new lives on Earth (Astrid had told Martha in private that she might have considered asking to join the Doctor, but after seeing how he and Martha interacted she decided that she didn't want to feel like a third wheel, and had decided to take advantage of some of Mr Copper's money to travel around Earth for a while).

"Think they'll be all right?" Martha asked, glancing over at the Doctor curiously as their new friends headed towards London.

"In this century?" the Doctor replied with a casual smile. "'Course they will; if Thomas Brewster could fit into this year, they _definitely _can…"

"Who?" Martha asked.

"Oh, Victorian would-be thief; he traveled with me when I was the celery-wearing one for a little bit before he settled down here," the Doctor replied, before he looked over at Martha with a slight smile. "Talking of old mes… what did you think of the other nine when you met them?"

Martha's eyes widened.

He was asking her opinion of his other selves?

But then… if he'd _known _about that meeting- if it had just been totally his subconscious he couldn't have been certain of anything-, that would mean…

"You mean… that was _really _you?" she said, looking incredulously at him. "I… I thought I really _was _just dreaming that bit…"

"You did?" the Doctor said, looking at her with a slight surprise before he shrugged it off, evidently concluding that her reasons for that weren't important (Which, Martha had to admit, was definitely the case; he'd certainly dealt with her old insecurities well enough with that kiss…). "So… what did you think of them?"

"You mean, aside from the one we met earlier?" Martha asked, smiling slightly at him before she shrugged as though she was considering something trivial like what flavour of ice cream she liked. "Well, that one with curly blonde hair could have done with some better fashion sense, and the white-haired one in velvet looked a bit… Austin Powers-esque to me…"

"In my defence, I spent most of my time then in the seventies; nobody would have even known who Austin Powers _was_-" the Doctor began.

"But, all in all, they were fine," Martha said, smiling reassuringly at him as she reached over to place a hand on his arm. "Bit of a surprise to think of you as having actually _looked _like that once, but…"

She shrugged. "As they said back then, they're all a part of who you are now."

"Even the one in leather?" the Doctor asked, looking at her with a sudden slight uncertainty. "He _did _drag Rose into this life; if he'd been a bit more together you might have never had to deal with her…"

Martha just smiled reassuringly at him.

"He's who you are," she said simply, before she walked over to stand in front of the Time Lord, casually reaching her arms up to place her hands behind his head. "And I…"

Her smile grew broader as she looked at his eyes. "I love you. _All _of you."

With that, she took the Doctor's face in her hands- like he'd taken hers in his, those long months ago when they first met in the hospital-, turned his head around, and kissed him soundly on the lips, leaving the Doctor's eyes momentarily widening in surprise and pleasure before he closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around Martha, a part of him unable to believe this was happening even as the rest of him couldn't believe he was doing this...

In the end, however, the circumstances didn't matter; all that mattered was that, despite the fool he'd been at the beginning, Martha had forgiven him, and they were ready to move on to the next stage of their lives.

He had no idea where they'd go once they went back to Martha's family or what kind of life they might have; whatever else happened, he was resolved that Martha was going to finish her exams to become a doctor- after all the mistakes he'd made so far he wasn't going to let her give up her dream simply because he'd miss her while she was doing it or because he'd get bored waiting on Earth for her to finish-, but what she'd do _after _that was the real question, even without the fact that he was still going to outlive her unless he was forced to regenerate...

It wouldn't be easy, he knew that much, but he would at least _try _to make it work-

"_DAMN_!" a voice said, sounding amused at the sight of whatever had prompted that last explanation. "Professor, I was _not _expecting that…"

As the Doctor and Martha pulled apart, Martha turned around in confusion to see a young woman standing astride what seemed to be a high-tech motorbike being ridden by a woman dressed in skintight black leather, smiling at the Doctor with a mockingly horrified expression that was only let down by the teasing smirk on her face as she looked at them.

"_Ace_?!" the Doctor said, pulling away from Martha and walking over to hug the new arrival enthusiastically. "What are _you _doing here?"

"Getting mentally scarred at the sight of the guy who might as well be my dad snogging someone, for starters," 'Ace' replied (Was it wrong for Martha to admit that the comment about the Doctor as a father was what allowed her to relax?), before she turned to smile at Martha. "Hi there; feel free to call me Ace, everyone else does. You'd be Martha, huh?"

"Uh… yeah," Martha replied, nodding slightly as she walked over to the new arrival to shake the offered hand, slightly bemused at the latest turn of events. "And… you are?"

"As I said, I'm Ace; I travelled with this guy back when he was a short geezer with a hat who carried an umbrella everywhere," Ace replied, smiling reassuringly at the medical student. "Dropped in on this guy while he was on the _Valiant_ in case I could help out, but he told me to leave before our resident psycho found out I was there because he already _had _a plan to stop the guy- talking of which, I take it you pulled it off?"

"Uh… yeah," Martha said, nodding at Ace in confusion before she glanced at the bike behind her. "Is that…?"

"My time machine?" Ace replied, smiling at Martha once again. "Basically, yeah; uses these temporal portal things we discovered a while back to take me around a specific 'area' of time and space, although the bike thing's mainly that way because it looks good when I get to wherever I'm going."

"Talking of which, why are you _here_ anyway?" the Doctor asked curiously. "I mean, not that I'm not glad to see you, but…"

"Oh, no reason; just wanted to make sure things were all good here after that crap with the Master… although I admit, there was also _this_," Ace said, pulling what looked to Martha like a blank piece of card and placing it on the TARDIS console. As though it had been a signal, the rods within the central column began to rise and fall once again, the familiar sound of materialisation surrounding them before the ship suddenly came to a halt, the card on the console

"What the…?" Martha said, looking at the card in confusion before she turned to the Doctor. "What was _that_?"

"Telepathically-encoded coordinate transmitter; it was used by some Time Lords to ensure that their TARDISes could always reach specific locations when they had to, although some could use them as an invitation to send TARDISes to areas where the Time Lord's presence was needed as soon as possible…" the Doctor said, before he turned to look at Ace incredulously. "And you just… _happened _to have one of those?"

"Well, Romana gave me a few the last time we met and told me how to use them if I ever needed to get somewhere; the console _has _changed a bit since you gave me tips on how to pilot the old girl, you know," Ace said, patting the TARDIS reassuringly as though apologising to the ship for the 'old girl' comment before looking back at the Doctor. "Anyway, the door's just over there; you want to see where we are, just walk over there and take a look."

Exchanging a brief glance with Martha, the Doctor shrugged, walked over to the TARDIS door, opened it…

"SURPRISE!"

* * *

AN 3: For continuity purposes, the Doctor used something like the card featured here in "The Empire of Glass", where the First Doctor received a card that sent him to Venice in the sixteenth century to attend a conference; how it was able to 'direct' the TARDIS to that location was never expressly described, so I just used this explanation


	40. Companions' Christmas Celebration

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Doctor Who' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now

Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me

AN: The last chapter; hope everyone likes it.

Broken Faith

As she hurried over to join the Doctor at the door, Martha couldn't believe the sight that met her eyes; out in front of them, in what looked like a massive hotel dining-hall, stood around two dozen people of varying ages and appearance, all of them staring at the TARDIS with broad smiles on their faces-

Martha froze.

She _knew _some of the people before her… there was Professor Chesteron- albeit looking a bit healthier than he had when she'd seen him in Russia- casually chatting with Mrs Jackson in the corner, the Kreniers laughing about something with Anji near a table…

"Welcome to the Companions' Christmas Celebration for 2008!" Ace said, walking up to sling her arms casually around the Doctor and Martha's shoulders, grinning broadly at the Time Lord and the medical student before she returned their attention to the group before them, her subsequent words confirming Martha's assessment of the situation. "Thought that you could use a cheerier celebration to make up for the crap one you must have had on the _Valiant_; dropped in on everyone still around at this time who's travelled with you- hacked into UNIT databases with the Brig's help and took it from there; it's not like you had an address book I could nick, after all-, told 'em what I was up to, and brought them to this hotel dining area Alistair managed to book for the occasion; I was thinking that you and I could just take them all back to this morning when we go so that they can be with their _other_ families as well-"

Ace was cut off mid-sentence as the Doctor suddenly turned and wrapped his arms around her, pulling back to look at the younger woman with a broad smile and the faint trace of tears in his eyes.

"Thank you," he said warmly as he looked at the young woman standing before him, the faint trace of tears in his eyes balanced out by the broad smile on his face. "I… words can't _begin _to…"

"So don't," Ace said, smirking at the Time Lord as she indicated the crowd before her with a casually teasing smile that reminded Martha of the old days when she'd prepared a surprise of some sort for her parents before everything went wrong in their relationship with each other. "Go on; they're waiting for you."

* * *

Pausing for a moment to take a deep breath- even for a Time Lord, the prospect of a reunion on this scale was somewhat intimidating-, the Doctor stepped out into the room before him, his gaze flickering over all the familiar faces gathered before him- Tegan sitting in a chair with a casual smile at the newly-arrived TARDIS, Mel and Sarah sharing some of what looked like Mel's carrot juice, Jo and Peri chatting about something- before it finally settled on a man he'd last seen falling to the ground after being shot through the heart, smiling warmly at him.

"Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart…" he said, walking over to his old UNIT commander with a broad grin as he held out one hand. "_Brilliant _to see you again!"

"Same to you, Doctor," the Brigadier replied, warmly shaking the Time Lord's hand before he glanced behind him to smile at the figure just behind him (The Doctor vaguely noticed that Ace had gone off to talk with Sarah and Mel about something). "Ah… Miss Martha Jones, correct?"

"Uh… yeah, that's me," Martha replied, stepping forward slightly to shake the older man's offered hand. "You're… the Brigadier, right? I heard… well, a few people told me about you…"

"During your trip around Earth to undo the Master's reign, correct?" the Brigadier asked, smiling warmly at the young woman before him in the same manner that the Doctor had always seen his old friend use in their post-UNIT interaction when his former commanding officer met his latest companions, demonstrating a warm compassion and appreciation for their willingness to become involved in the life of his oldest friend. "Yes, Miss McShane filled me on what you've been up to lately, Miss Jones… although, of course, another old friend of mine was able to give me more… specific details."

The Doctor didn't even need to ask who the 'other old friend' was; a brief glance to the side revealed the presence of Mike Yates, the haunted look that the Doctor had seen in his eyes only a couple of days ago now lessened after the months that had elapsed between then and now for the former captain, smiling slightly at his two old colleagues…

"D… Doctor?" an uncertain voice said from off to the side, as though he wasn't certain somebody wasn't playing a joke on him.

Turning to look at the speaker, the Doctor's eyes widened even as his face split into a broad smile.

"_Ian_!" he said, smiling broadly at his first human companion, enthusiastically hugging the old man who'd once taught his granddaughter science in the sixties before he could stop himself, subsequently pulling back to continue to grin at his old friend. "Look at you; forty-five years on and you haven't changed a bit!"

"_Bit _stiffer round the edges, I think, Doctor…" Ian replied, flexing his shoulders slightly as though working off some stiffness even as he smiled at his old friend. "You know, even after Miss McShane told me about this 'regeneration' thing you do, I don't think I really believed it until I saw you step out of that old police box with that same old gleam in your eyes; did you _ever _get around to fixing that… chameleon circuit, I think you called it?"

"Oh, thought about it once or twice, but decided that I was better off with it like this; even when I actually _did _fix it, it _still _wouldn't blend in," the Doctor said by way of explanation, shrugging slightly as he glanced back at the TARDIS. "Besides, this shape's really more practical than most alternatives; I mean, how are you meant to find the door to an _organ_?"

"Same old Doctor…" another voice said, prompting the Doctor to glance around to look at an old woman, maybe a few years younger than Ian, smiling slightly at him. "So long since I last saw you, and you're _still _making jokes…"

"_Polly_!" the Doctor said, grinning again as he hugged her before he stepped back, looking between the two before him as something occurred to him, a suddenly uncomfortable expression on his face as he looked between his two old friends. "I… look, sorry I didn't mention this earlier, but I… well, I heard about Barbara and Ben, and… well, it's not that I didn't _want _to go, but…"

"We understand," Polly said, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder as she smiled reassuringly at him. "When you can go around through time so much… it's hard to really say goodbye to someone like that, isn't it?"

"It's like you said to me when I left, isn't it?" another voice said, prompting the Doctor to turn around to stare at a young blonde-haired woman dressed in a smart trouser suit as she smiled at him. "When you're a time-traveller, technically everyone's dead and alive at the same time-"

"_SAM_?" the Doctor said, his grin practically splitting his face as he looked at his eighth self's first companion- even if he'd left her at that Greenpeace rally and forgotten about her while travelling with Charley and Lucie, he'd always kept her in mind; he'd just been a bit uncomfortable with having someone so young along until he himself felt more stable-, only for the smile to fade slightly in confusion. "But… hold on, I saw your _grave_…"

"Oh, Fitz and I cleared _that _up when he ran into me after he left you; we've never actually been certain_ what _that was about, but our best guess is that it was that Marnal prat trying to make a point by claiming I was dead," Sam said dismissively, before she smiled at him. "Still… look at you, eh?"

"Forget about me; look at _you_!" the Doctor said, smiling back at Sam. "From drugged-up freak-outs in your parents' attic to speech-making political activist; you're _really_ making some interesting ripples out there, you know?"

"What can I say?" Sam replied, shrugging briefly at him. "I had a vision of James Stewart that inspired me to do what I could."

"Just what I like to do, really," the Doctor said, before he snapped his fingers and turned back to Martha, who was looking between the other three in a slightly bemused manner. "Oh, sorry; Martha, this is-"

"Professor Ian Chesterton and Mrs Polly Jackson; I… met them," Martha said, walking forward to shake hands with the two former companions in question, a slightly uncertain expression on her face as she looked at two people she'd technically never met. "I know that sounds-"

"Oh, no worries, Miss McShane over there filled us in on the essential details of what you've been doing," Polly said, indicating where Ace was currently chatting with the Brigadier. "Congratulations are in order, really; I don't think _I _could have done that…"

"Oh, don't underestimate yourself, Polly Jackson; you _were _the one who managed to come up with that stuff that destroyed the Cybermen's respiratory systems, remember?" the Doctor said, giving Polly a reassuring brief hug before he stepped back. "Anyway, enough about life back then; Martha, this is Samantha Jones, the one you apparently _didn't _meet…"

* * *

Looking back on that night, the Doctor always remembered some parts more keenly than others depending on the circumstances; in his more melancholy moods, he mourned his inability to really do anything to help Tegan cope with her tumour, or regretted the losses of those who could have been here with their fellows- aside from Barbara and Ben, Liz Shaw and Harry Sullivan's absences were also keenly felt by those who'd known them; he just wished that Dodo had spent more time with Polly for her absence to mean more than it did-, but then, in his more upbeat moments, he reflected on Sarah's tales of her new life with her son Luke- she'd left him at home because she didn't feel right dragging her son into something like this, particularly when she was still trying to adapt to the idea of herself as a mother in the first place-, Peri's stories of her travels across America and Europe, Anji's life with Chloe- she'd been particularly shocked to learn that he really _was _the Doctor she'd known-, Jo's progress since the last time he'd seen her- after Matthew had moved on to university she'd managed to get herself settled more comfortably-, Benton's return to UNIT after the second-hand-car sales proved not to be enough to maintain his interest…

But, no matter what mood he was in when he looked back on that night's dinner, the Doctor could honestly say that he'd never had a better Christmas- even when counting those few years he'd spent raising Miranda in the eighties during his amnesic exile two bodies ago- than the one he'd had that night. He might not always drop in on old friends as regularly as he'd like- after seeing what had happened to Tegan in particular, he supposed a part of him was always afraid of how they'd have turned out, and seeing Sam's grave and Marnal's later accusations (Even if he'd begun to suspect that Marnal had been lying after he regained his memories) hadn't helped matters-, but it was moments like this that helped him remember _why _he invited people to come with him…

He gave them the chance to become better than they had been before, and it was always a pleasure to see his faith in their ability to go beyond their original boundaries rewarded with success like this.

Oh, he wasn't denying that some of them- Jo and Tegan sprang to mind- might have had some more trouble coping with life away from him than he might have hoped, but they nevertheless always managed to thrive with what he'd taught them and what they'd experienced in their time with him; he gave them a chance, and they invariably confirmed that he was right to give them that chance.

Finally, after a multitude of conversations and introductions- apologising to Mel for a _second _time was slightly surreal even if Ace had already laid the groundwork for his apology when she'd picked Mel up, while Peri and Jo had bonded surprisingly well over some of their past 'near-liaisons' they'd had in their travels-, the Doctor found himself standing at the top of the dinner table that had been established in the hall, looking slightly nervously around the room at the old companions gathered before him.

"Uh… hi," he said at last, smiling around at the vast miniature army of familiar faces, some more worn by the passage of time than others but all still the people he'd shared so much with in his past lives, as they looked at him curiously (Even Tegan was looking at him with renewed intensity behind her gaze; the tumour still wasn't fatal but it did make concentration slightly difficult). "Firstly, I know I don't do this sort of thing often- even the most egocentric mes tended not to go in for public speaking unless they _had _to-, but in a situation like this, I think that… well, I'd regret _not _doing this."

"Secondly," he continued, his stance becoming more resolute as he studied his old friends, "for those of you who travelled with my other incarnations, I can only wish that I could be here for you now with the faces that you remember me wearing when we parted ways; I will always care for _all_ of you, no matter what I look like or act like, but with some…"

He paused for a moment, his gaze flicking briefly to Victoria and Jo in particular before he continued. "Well, I understand that you… preferred the me you knew to the one that's here now."

For a moment there was silence, the companions looking at this new version of their 'driver', 'leader' and friend for a moment, until Peri broke the silence.

"Whoever you are physically…" she said, smiling slightly at the young man in the brown suit, "you're always the Doctor where it counts; I think I learned the… direct way that a few personal problems don't stop you being who you are."

The Doctor could only smile gratefully at his old companion for that comment; after the way his sixth incarnation had treated her shortly after his regeneration, he'd sometimes worried a bit about their relationship, even if things between her and that body had drastically improved after such adventures as that mess with Iam and the Rani.

"Thank you, Per," he said, nodding at the American woman with a small smile before he returned his attention to the group before him. "I've always prided myself that I only take the best to travel with me- and don't discount yourselves from that if you just happened to wander into the ship or something like that; if I hadn't wanted you there getting rid of you wouldn't have been _that _difficult-, and you've always proven yourselves to be worth that faith, both when you were with me and after you left; looking at you all, standing here before me…"

The Doctor paused for a moment- he had to blink a tear out of the corner of his eye- before he continued, a warm smile on his face as he stared at the people around him.

"It's… '_brilliant_' doesn't even begin to describe it," he said at last, his voice momentarily choked with emotion. "To know that you… all of you… wanted to come here… so many brilliant people, from so many walks of life… all coming together just to see me…"

He smiled at them all. "Well… 'thank you' seems inadequate for everything you did for me- back then and now, I should clarify-, but…"

"I think we can all safely say that it's us who should be thanking you, Doctor," the Brigadier said, standing up to raise a glass to the Time Lord. "A toast, to the man who taught us that the universe can be so much bigger, and stranger, and… _better_… than we could have ever imagined."

"And to the man who always did what he could to save us… while making sure that he also _saved _us," Mike Yates added, raising his own glass in acknowledgement of the Brigadier's toast. "For showing us that, just because it's harder than the easy way, we should never stop trying to do things the _right _way."

Smiling over at Mike, the Doctor could only give the UNIT captain a brief smile as thanks for what he'd just said, grateful that Mike had understood his actions in the last confrontation with the Master.

Not shooting the Master might not have been the easiest thing for Mike to do after what the other Time Lord had made him do, but it was the _right _thing to do.

The Doctor was well aware that the universe wasn't the perfect place it could be, but, as he'd told Sabbath two lifetimes ago, that only gave him more incentive to see things the way he saw them; the way the universe _was _simply wasn't acceptable, and that made it all the more important for him to be who he was and try and act the way he acted.

He might have failed to save the Master at the last, but he had to try; if he didn't even give his old friend a chance to better himself, how was he any different from the man who had once been his closest friend?

"And lastly…" the Doctor said, glancing upwards to smile at something above his head before he looked down at Martha, his mind already made up on his next course of action as well as being grateful to have moved on to a more 'relaxed' topic. "Miss Jones, are you aware that we're currently under the mistletoe?"

* * *

"Wha-?" Martha said, glancing up only to see that the Doctor was right; dangling directly above their heads was a small branch of mistletoe, hanging from what seemed to be a small hook in the middle of the ceiling…

And, now that Martha was looking at it, she realised that it was the only example of the plant in question in the entire room…

"Oh my God…" she said, looking over at where Ace sat on the Doctor's opposite side, smiling slightly at the two of them; it might have been a bit of a leap of logic, but given that Ace _was _the person who'd organised this whole thing it wasn't as big a stretch as it might have been. "You… you _planned _this…?"

"Trust me, when the _Doctor _tells you he loves someone, you _know _he's got to be serious about it; all he really needs is the right… incentive… to show it to a larger group," Ace said in a low voice, smiling slightly at Martha before she indicated the Time Lord standing between them, staring hopefully at her as they spoke. "So… are you going to do it?"

For a moment, as Martha looked out at the group before them, she almost couldn't believe this; here she was, in a room full of the Doctor's oldest friends- God, Professor Chesterton had known him when he was still in the body he'd been _born _in and was travelling with his _granddaughter_-, all of whom had experienced at _one _thing with the Doctor that none of their fellows would have encountered…

_And he wanted to kiss her_…

That was what she almost couldn't believe, really; after everything she'd heard in her travels around the world- even if nobody she'd met _remembered _telling her the stories in question-, after all the times the Doctor's old companions had told her that he'd never expressed any interest in anyone as anything more than a friend…

He was going to kiss her- _her_- in front of the people who were literally the closest thing to a family he'd ever had in his life.

If Martha had still needed proof of the Doctor's feelings, she was fairly certain she'd just received it; with the Time Lords gone, this was probably the closest she'd ever come to meeting her in-laws, and the Doctor wanted to make sure everyone knew how he felt

As she stood up in her chair and turned to face the Doctor, their arms almost automatically wrapping around each other as their mouths met, Martha barely even registered the applause that suddenly came from all around them as the Doctor's tongue explored her mouth as enthusiastically as the Doctor himself explored everywhere the TARDIS took them.

Life with this man wasn't going to be easy- Martha wouldn't kid herself by thinking otherwise; even without the issues involved in regular travel in the TARDIS, the fact that the Doctor wasn't even her _species _wasn't something that could be overlooked-, but she already knew that it was going to be the most incredible experience of her life…

* * *

AN 2: For clarification purposes, Samantha Jones travelled with the Eighth Doctor in the BBC novels shortly after his regeneration- it's speculated that the Big Finish audios took place between her joining him in "The Eight Doctors" and the subsequent novel "Vampire Science", as she mentions a trip she took to a Greenpeace rally at the beginning of the second book where the Doctor apparently left her for an hour and came back for her after three years had passed for him-, apparently going on to become a political activist after his departure; her existence was partly caused by a temporal paradox designed to create a 'perfect' companion for the Doctor, but he went back to visit her before she travelled with him disguised in a James Stewart mask while she was high to encourage her to go beyond her original limitations. The TARDIS apparently landed at her grave in "The Gallifrey Chronicles", stating that she died in 2002, but given that the Doctor was subsequently captured by Marnal- a Time Lord seeking to pass judgement on the Doctor for the destruction of Gallifrey-, coupled with the fact that the middle name on the grave was wrong, it suggests that Marnal faked the grave to serve as a lure and to try and make a point to the Doctor about the 'negative consequences' of his interference

AN 3: Well, that's the story completed; hope everyone enjoyed it (Sequels are in the planning stages, but I can't guarantee when I'll get around to writing them; I've got a few things I want to finish up before I return to this series)


End file.
